Jose Javier Rodriguez, Ileana Garcia Recount Gets Underway In Battle For State Senate District 37

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A recount will get underway on Tuesday for the two candidates vying for the state's Senate District 37.

Just 31 votes separate Republican Ileana Garcia and Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez.

Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez has held the seat since 2016.

A machine recount is triggered if the vote difference is one-half of one percent (0.5%).

"We will read them through the tabulators again and attribute votes to either one of those candidates. If we find that there are areas where there are additional votes that may have been picked up through people circling a candidate or bubbling two candidates, so we will look at each and every one of those to see if there's any way additional votes can be attributed to a candidate," Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections.

A manual recount is triggered if the vote difference is one-quarter of one percent (0.25%).

"If the margin falls below .25 percent then we'll actually go to a hand review of every ballot that again the machine has kicked out as an overvote. That means someone who has made two selections or no selection at all. We'll be reviewing by hand to one candidate or another," said White.

Garcia is a former Department of Homeland Security deputy press secretary in the Trump administration. She also founded Latinas for Trump. If she wins, it will boost the Republican majority in the Senate from 23-17 to 24-16.

The district represents areas including Coral Gables, Key Biscayne, Palmetto Bay and Pinecrest.

The deadline for finishing the recount is Thursday.