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Regalado Amends Complaint In Attempt To Toss Gimenez From Dade Mayoral Race

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Miami-Dade Mayoral candidate Raquel Regalado has filed an amended complaint in a lawsuit looking to boot her opponent, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, from the race.

Hours after a judge denied her request Monday, saying her motion to toss Gimenez from the race was flawed, her attorney filed an amended complaint.

As part of the new filing, Regalado says Gimenez aided and abetted the Supervisor of Elections and violated a Florida Statute in the process. It also claims Gimenez is not properly qualified for the race.

The lawsuit claims Gimenez violated a Florida statute in using a campaign check instead of a cashier's check to qualify him to be in the mayoral race after the first check reportedly had an invalid date. 

While processing Gimenez's qualifying paperwork, the Miami-Dade County Elections Department notified Gimenez of the error of the date on the check, the lawsuit claims. Regalado's attorneys argue this was an "unlawful" move by the department and the Supervisor of Elections (SOE) since it is not under their scope of work to determine that the check was not accurate.

After they notified him, Gimenez submitted a new check from his campaign account, not a cashier's check. The lawsuit argues this would be a reason to disqualify him from the race even though Florida law only requires a cashier's check if the first qualifying check has been returned. The Supervisor of Elections said no check was returned or declined by the bank.

The amended complaint states, "The SOE, through the actions of the Deputy Supervisor of Elections, violated Florida law for the benefit of Gimenez, who promptly took advantage of such violation of Florida law to attempt to cure the fatally flawed June 2015 Check by having a team of three others appear after 10:00 p.m. on June 20, 2016, at the Elections Department with another regular campaign check (June 2016 Check)."  

The deadline to have submitted the check was June 21, 2016, at 12 p.m., meaning Gimenez submitted the check before the deadline.

Gimenez's camp is calling the lawsuit a "Hail Mary Pass" because Regalado is behind by 22 points according to a recent Bendixen Amandi poll for Univision and WLRN.  

A hearing is set in the case for Wednesday. Click here to read more about Campaign 2016.

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