By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Machine recounts have been called for a state legislative seat on the Space Coast where a Democrat appears to have defeated the incumbent, and for a Congressional seat Republicans are holding onto in South Florida.
All other contests for state and federal offices were outside the 0.5 percent margin among total votes cast to require a recount under state law. The unofficial results will be confirmed at the state Elections Canvassing Commission meeting on Nov. 17.
The Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Office plans to begin the recount process for Congressional District 27 Monday morning at the elections office.
The first unofficial returns posted by the state Division of Elections show Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar up 1,090 votes on Democrat Eliott Rodriguez, a former CBS News Miami anchor, from nearly 248,000 votes cast.
Brevard County Supervisor of Elections Tim Bobanic announced the county Canvassing Board will meet at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Election Support Center in Melbourne to begin the recount of the state House District 33 contest.
Incumbent Republican Rep. Monique Miller, R-Palm Bay, was down 289 votes to Democrat Daniel McDow, a former West Melbourne city council member, out of the 72,571 ballots cast in the race.
All county official returns are due November 16.
Overall, Republicans maintain their majorities in both chambers but have lost the supermajority hold on the House as Democrats have flipped 16 seats — not including the Brevard County district — since the qualifying period in June.
Republicans have reclaimed a single House district in Palm Beach County, which puts the House at 70 Republicans and 49 Democrats heading into the Legislature’s organizational session on Nov. 17, pending the outcome of the HD 33 recount.
In the Senate, one seat changed hands last Tuesday, with former Maitland mayor John Lowndes, a Democrat, defeating incumbent Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who in September appeared in a Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee ad for Brodeur, said the Sanford Republican “got caught up in a wave.”
“This wasn’t a reflection on him,” DeSantis told reporters on Wednesday. “He got caught up in a wave where people were coming out and they were going to vote ‘D’ down the ballot. They made that decision. I don’t think there was anything he could have done.”
The Senate seating count set for the 2027 session would be 25 Republicans, 13 Democrats and 1 independent. The Senate District 39 seat in Miami-Dade County previously held by Lt. Gov.-elect Bryan Avila remains open and no special election has been announced.
If Salazar maintains her edge in the recount, Florida’s congressional delegation would emerge from the midterm election with 20 Republicans and 8 Democrats. The breakdown would be unchanged from prior to the election, even after state Republicans held a special session earlier this year to redraw the congressional lines in a manner viewed as favorable for them to pick up as many as four seats.
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