Miami-Dade Elections Chief Called the Recount Before It Started and Isn't Sure Whether She's Related to It

MIAMI — Florida’s 27th District is close enough for a recount. The official running it has already said how the recount ends.

Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar leads Democrat Eliott Rodriguez by 1,116 votes, WLRN reported Thursday. The margin is about 0.46 points, inside Florida’s half-point threshold for an automatic machine recount, CBS Miami reported.

Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia does not appear to be waiting for it.

“María Elvira is the winner, with or without a recount,” Garcia told the Miami Herald, according to WLRN. She called it “possible but not probable” that the remaining ballots could change the outcome.

The lawyer

Rodriguez’s campaign also says Salazar’s recount attorney, Robert Fernandez, is Garcia’s son-in-law, WLRN reported. The campaign asked for confirmation of the family connection and of Fernandez’s role.

CBS Miami put the question to Garcia. “I don’t know, he could be,” she said. “He does practice election law.”

Most officials overseeing a recount know who is in their family. It tends to come up at holidays.

Garcia’s office said she would not recuse herself, WSVN reported. Neither her office nor Fernandez confirmed the family tie to the station.

The demand

Rodriguez attorney Jason B. Blank asked Garcia to step back from all canvassing board work and recount decisions on the race. “Voters deserve a fair count,” he wrote. “They should not have to wonder whether the official helping oversee it has already decided the outcome.”

Salazar answered with a statement of her own. She said Rodriguez was “behaving like an election denier” and called her lead “an insurmountable margin,” WSVN reported.

“My opponent should allow the Canvassing Board and election workers to do their jobs and stop trying to undermine public confidence because he does not like the current results,” Salazar said.

Rodriguez, a CBS News Miami anchor for 25 years, has said he will not concede until a recount is finished, CBS Miami reported.

What happens Friday

The Miami-Dade canvassing board meets Friday to certify the unofficial results, the Miami Herald reported. That will show whether a recount is needed. The race is federal, so the Florida Secretary of State orders it. It would not begin before Saturday, CBS Miami reported.

“The supervisor is not predicting the recount,” said a county official known to this bureau only as Deep Throat Lozenge. “She is reporting it early. There is a difference, and it is about four days.”

The ballots will be run through the machines again. Garcia has already shared the total.