Politics
Locklin Threatens Suit Over Miami-Dade Election Records in District 26 Race
Democrat Nicole Locklin is demanding tabulation records from Miami-Dade's elections office and threatening to sue, questioning why roughly 3,000 votes briefly vanished from her total in a race she lost to Republican Mario Diaz-Balart by 0.8 points.
MIAMI â Democratic congressional candidate Nicole Locklin is threatening legal action against Miami-Dade County's elections office unless it releases election-night tabulation records, escalating a dispute over vote totals in a race she narrowly lost.
Republican Mario Diaz-Balart has been projected the winner in Florida's 26th Congressional District by 0.8 percentage points, 114,578 to 112,874, according to projections from multiple outlets.
At a news conference, Locklin said the public deserves a full accounting of how the numbers were reported. "One of the most basic promises of our democracy is that every eligible vote is counted and that the officials entrusted with our elections can explain clearly and publicly how the results were reported," she said.
Locklin initially declared victory on election night based on Associated Press figures, then raised questions after roughly 3,000 votes were removed from her total. The AP attributed the shift to a reporting error, stating that "a data entry error caused an incorrect vote total to briefly appear for Nicole Locklin in Florida's 26th congressional district race."
Locklin said that explanation is incomplete. She argued the higher figure was also pulled from Miami-Dade's public reporting data by civicAPI and, according to operators of other independent data services, seen by them as well. CivicAPI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Locklin is demanding tabulation records from the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections office and says she will sue if they are not provided. The office was closed Wednesday for the Veterans Day holiday.
Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia, speaking after a recount wrapped up Tuesday in the neighboring District 27 congressional race, defended her office's handling of the vote. "Everything I do as Supervisor of Elections and everything our office does is conducted openly and transparently and in strict accordance with Florida law," Garcia said. A spokesman for Garcia added Wednesday: "There were no results reporting errors at the Miami-Dade Office of Elections."
The standoff comes as trust in local election administration faces fresh scrutiny. For voters in District 26, the dispute leaves an unresolved question about how a three-thousand-vote discrepancy appeared in public data â and whether the records Locklin seeks will be released voluntarily or only under court order.