Staff Reports
Democrat Robert Asencio has won Miami-Dade County’s House District 118 seat after both machine and manual recounts in that race.
The state’s Division of Elections released the final results Sunday night.
Asencio overcame Republican David Rivera by 53 votes, a tighter margin than the 68 votes that initially triggered the recount. Florida law requires automatic recounts when election results are within a half of a percentage point.
The final count was Rivera’s 31,359 votes, to Asencio’s 31,412 votes, or 49.96 percent to 50.04 percent.
Asencio should become the 41st member of the Democratic caucus in the Florida House, erasing the veto-proof majority Gov. Rick Scott currently enjoys.
But the House’s website on Monday showed no listing for the district. A request for comment to the House is pending.
Asencio is a retired police sergeant who worked for the Miami-Dade Public Schools Police Department.
Rivera had been attempting a political comeback by running again for the Legislature. The former state legislator and U.S. representative is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation and has previously been fined $58,000 by the state ethics board.
Updated 4:30 p.m. | On Monday afternoon, the House website was updated with Asencio’s name as the representative for House District 118.
