The attorney for the campaign of Eliott Rodríguez, JC Planas, announced this Friday that they will file a lawsuit against Alina García, the Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor, amid the tight count for Florida's Congressional District 27, which pits the Democratic candidate against Republican Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar.
The lawsuit has not yet been formally filed. "We are going to file a lawsuit, and this is something that goes well beyond this election," Planas stated to WSVN.
The dispute is escalating into the judicial arena as the margin between the two candidates —approximately 1,100 votes— keeps the race within the 0.5% threshold that Florida law sets for an automatic machine recount.
The core of the conflict lies in an alleged family relationship: according to Rodríguez's campaign, Robert Fernández, the attorney representing Salazar in the recount process, is García's son-in-law, and the supervisor's daughter works at the same law firm.
Planas argued before WSVN that the situation constitutes a violation of judicial impartiality standards: "The Scrutiny Board is a quasi-judicial procedure. If a judge's relative were to enter the court as an attorney for one of the parties, the judge would immediately recuse themselves."
The campaign also pointed out that García declared Salazar the winner on election night, before the counting was finished. In a formal letter, Rodríguez's lawyers referenced a statement attributed to García in the Miami Herald: "María Elvira [Salazar] is the winner, with or without a recount."
The electoral office rejected the recusal request. García, for his part, stated at a press conference on Wednesday: "I just want voters to understand that everything here is transparent and correct."
When CBS Miami asked him about Fernández's potential involvement, he replied: "I don't know, it could be. He practices electoral law."
Salazar responded firmly to his rival's maneuvers. In a statement, he accused Rodríguez of acting "like an electoral denier" and demanded that he allow the Counting Board and election workers to do their job "without trying to undermine public trust just because he doesn't like the current results."
This Friday, the Miami-Dade Canvassing Board met to certify provisional ballots and the signatures on mail-in votes, the final step in certifying the county's results before Florida's Secretary of State, Cord Byrd, can formally order the recount.
The automatic recount will not begin before the start of next week. Legal deadlines set the delivery of its results for November 12 before 3:00 p.m., and those for a potential manual recount —which would be triggered if the margin falls to 0.25% or less— by noon on November 16.
The result represents a dramatic turnaround for Salazar, who had won the same district by more than 20 points in 2024 and almost 15 in 2022.
Analysts attribute the adjustment to the dissatisfaction of the Hispanic vote with deportation policies and the economic situation, in a district where 73.5% of the population is Hispanic.
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