Democrat Eliott Rodriguez’s campaign for Florida’s 27th Congressional District is demanding that Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia recuse herself from the race’s recount process, citing comments she made about the yet-to-be-called contest and personal ties she has to Rodriguez’s opponent.
Garcia said she won’t be stepping away.
“This is not about favoring one candidate over another,” Rodriguez’s campaign said. “It is about ensuring that every legally cast vote is counted fairly and that the public can have absolute confidence in the integrity of the process.”
In a letter that lawyer Jason Blank sent to Garcia’s General Counsel, Oren Rosenthal, Rodriguez’s camp called for Garcia to remove herself from the county Canvassing Board and any further consideration of the CD 27 race, including any recount.
Garcia displayed clear bias in the matter, the letter said, by declaring on Election Night that incumbent U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar, a fellow Republican, had won the race outright.
The Miami Herald quoted Garcia as saying, “María Elvira is the winner, with or without a recount,” before clarifying that it was “possible, but not probable,” that a recount could lead to Rodriguez winning.
Blank also noted that, “even more concerning,” Garcia’s son-in-law, Robert Fernandez, is the lawyer representing Salazar in the recount process, “according to information provided to” Rodriguez’s campaign.
“If true, voters would be asked to accept the decisions of an official who has already decided the winner, and while a close member of her family advocates for that very candidate,” Blank wrote. “Recusal would remove any question about the impartiality of the board’s work.”
Blank added that he had also sent copies of the letter to Mark Herron, General Counsel for the Florida Democratic Party, and Juan-Carlos “J.C.” Planas, General Counsel for the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee. Planas lost to Garcia in the 2024 Supervisor of Elections race.
When asked whether her son-in-law was indeed Salazar’s lawyer, Garcia said, “It is possible. He is an election law attorney.” She said she didn’t know whether he was currently working for Salazar.
U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar met and posed for photos with Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia and Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez, both fellow Republicans, roughly six months after they won election. Image via Salazar’s Instagram.
This isn’t the first time someone has asked Garcia to remove herself from the electoral process. In early October, Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chair Laura Kelley called for Garcia’s recusal after Garcia participated in a pro-Amendment 3 news conference alongside other county constitutional officers and Miami-Dade GOP members.
Garcia, a longtime Republican operative who served one term in the Florida House before mounting a successful campaign for Supervisor in 2024, rejected Kelley’s request, positing that it came only because Kelley opposed Amendment 3, which passed Tuesday.
On Thursday morning, the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections website showed Salazar leading Rodriguez, a fellow Cuban American and former TV news anchor, by 1,116 votes, or 0.46 percentage points — within the threshold that triggers a recount.
By evening, that lead shrank to 1,103.
Garcia said Wednesday that Secretary of State Cord Byrd must order any recount after officials review outstanding ballots and submit unofficial returns, which are due by noon Saturday.
“If a recount is ordered,” she said, “it would not begin before Saturday.”
The state’s election timetable requires machine-recount results by 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, giving election workers several days to complete the process. The schedule does not establish when results would first become available.
County officials must submit certified returns by noon Nov. 16, with statewide certification scheduled for Nov. 17.