Ballot recount underway for tight District 27 race between Salazar and Rodriguez

Workers at Miami-Dade Elections headquarters worked through Monday evening and will potentially work through Tuesday morning recounting close to 250,000 ballots for Florida's Congressional District 27 race between Maria Elvira Salazar and Eliott Rodriguez.

The recount started shortly before 11 a.m., when workers first tested the machines to make sure they were working properly.

Then tabulation started with Election Day ballots, which was wrapped up Monday evening. The plan was then to count early votes and vote-by-mail ballots.

"A ballot may get torn, may get ripped and may stop the process," assistant county attorney Michael Valdes said. "If that occurs, the ballot that is not able to be run through the machine anymore will be brought for duplication.”

That’s where the canvassing board comes in to review. The board is made up of county judges Jose Rohaidy and Victoria Ferrer, along with elections supervisor Alina Garcia, who is a Republican.

Earlier Monday, Rodriguez's campaign went to federal court, but a judge denied their motion to keep Garcia from voting or acting as a deciding member of the canvassing board for District 27 matters because of conflict of interest concerns.

Garcia’s son-in-law is representing the Salazar campaign.

“It was not about Eliott Rodriguez, it was not about Maria Salazar, it wasn’t even about Alina Garcia," said JC Planas, an attorney for the Rodriguez campaign. "It was about making sure we draw a line to make sure that those who are responsible for maintaining our democracy do everything possible to show impartiality.”

Salazar had claimed victory, but the race has not been officially called. She entered the recount with a narrow lead of just 1,090 votes over Rodriguez.

“If the results are between .25 margin or less, then we proceed to a manual recount," Valdes said. "If not, then that concludes the recount.”