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A machine recount in Florida’s 27th Congressional District is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Monday at Miami-Dade Elections headquarters in Doral. An hour earlier, U.S. District Judge David S. Leibowitz is set to hear Democrat Eliott Rodriguez’s request to bar Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia from the recount process, according to the Miami Herald and the Key Biscayne Independent.
The immediate stakes are procedural and electoral: Republican Rep. María Elvira Salazar leads Rodriguez by 1,090 votes, a margin that triggered a machine recount under Florida law. Results are due by 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12. A manual recount is required if the machine recount leaves the candidates separated by 0.25% or less, according to Florida Politics.
The request before the judge
Rodriguez, a former longtime local television news anchor, sued in federal court seeking to keep Garcia off the recount process. The lawsuit alleges bias and conflicts of interest, according to Florida Politics’ Nov. 6 report and the Key Biscayne Independent. Garcia is a member of the Canvassing Board, the body that oversees recounts under Florida law, according to the county’s recount notice.
Leibowitz’s emergency hearing is on Rodriguez’s request to bar Garcia from participating. As of early Monday morning, no ruling had been issued, according to reporting by the Miami Herald and Key Biscayne Independent. Whether the judge rules before recount work begins, and what any ruling would require, remained pending.
The hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m.; the recount is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. at Miami-Dade Elections headquarters, 2700 NW 87th Ave. in Doral, according to the county notice and local reporting. The court proceeding and recount are taking place on the same morning, but they are separate steps: the lawsuit concerns Garcia’s role, while the recount will review the vote count.
How the recount proceeds
Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd officially ordered the machine recount on Saturday, Nov. 7, according to Florida Politics. The state-set deadline for submitting machine recount results is 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, the outlet reported.
The next threshold is 0.25%. If the margin after the machine recount is at or below that level, Florida law requires a manual recount, according to Florida Politics. Whether the FL-27 race will meet that threshold cannot be known until the machine recount is complete.
Salazar’s 1,090-vote lead after the Nov. 3 general election put the race within Florida’s machine-recount threshold, according to the Miami Herald and Florida Politics. The margin and lead are the reported pre-recount figures; they do not determine the result of the recount.
The Digest previously covered the recount setup and Rodriguez’s lawsuit in its earlier report. The focus now shifts to the court’s decision and the count itself.
Certification deadline remains ahead
Miami-Dade’s official schedule requires certification of the Nov. 3 general election by noon on Monday, Nov. 16. The county’s schedule lists post-election audits through Nov. 23, according to the Canvassing Board schedule. Those dates frame the county’s remaining election work; they do not establish the outcome of the congressional recount.
A separate Doral race also recently went through a recount. The Miami Herald and NBC 6 reported that the recount for Doral City Council Seat 2 was completed Saturday, Nov. 7, with Maureen Porras ahead of Fernanda Gomes by 12 votes, 9,596 to 9,584. That result remains unofficial pending certification.
Doral’s election calendar lists a Dec. 8 runoff for other municipal races, according to the Miami-Dade 2026 election calendar. The FL-27 congressional race is not on that runoff calendar; its next steps are governed by the recount and certification process.
The developments to watch Monday are Leibowitz’s ruling on Garcia’s participation and whether recount operations begin as scheduled. After that, the key milestones are the Nov. 12 results deadline and the margin the machine recount produces. A manual recount is possible only if that margin is 0.25% or less. As of Monday morning, neither the court’s decision nor the recount result was known.
