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Appeal Expected To Be Filed In District 7 Election

MIAMI (CBS4) – Miami-Dade county commissioners are expected to file an emergency appeal Wednesday, according to the Department of Elections.

While the election went on Tuesday, no winner will be publicly announced for now. Meanwhile, Ricardo Corona, an attorney and Spanish television personality spoke out.

Miami-Dade circuit court judge ruled late Monday to temporarily suppress the results for Tuesday's District 7 race.

The decision came from Judge William Thomas after Corona filed a lawsuit challenging the time period would-be candidates had to declare their intent to enter their name in the special election.

Corona said that he, along with others, were not give enough time to file and run in the election.

"First of all, the only two people that qualify for the race that I'm talking about are these two individuals and they were there and here are the papers stamped a month and two months before," Corona said.

The qualifying period was only a day and a half long.

Corona says he arrived at elections headquarters and filed his documents at 4:58 p.m. on April 14, two minutes before the deadline. An elections worker told Corona that one of his forms was incorrect, and sent him to the lobby to fill out the correct form. Corona says by the time he submitted the correct form, it was stamped at 5:22 p.m., 22 minutes past the deadline.

Corona first sued to have his name included on the ballot. His lawsuit was thrown out, but Judge Thomas did mention that the time period in which potential candidates could file the necessary paperwork was much too short.

That's when Corona filed suit again, and this time. Judge Thomas sided with him.

"What the commission did in fact was limit and not allow anybody else to participate," he said. "Just the people that were there that had qualified before."

Voters casted ballots their Tuesday in the special Miami-Dade County Commission race, but results won't be know for at least another week, pending another hearing in Corona's case.

Former Miami mayor Xavier Suarez and former state lawmaker Julio Robaina are both vying for the seat left vacant by Carlos Gimenez, who is running for Miami-Dade mayor.

They expressed their surprise of the judge's decision.

"The day that these individuals don't have that right, then run back living where my parents fled from Cuba, and I don't want to see that here," Robaina said. "I want to make sure that people understand that everyone has a right to run for office and to have their votes counted.

Xavier Suarez said, "Hopefully the appellate court will allow the votes to be counted. I think the people deserve, frankly both candidates and our contributors deserve to know the results of this election."

Click Here for more on Tuesday's Special Election.

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