(CNN) – Rep. Allen West's campaign said it filed a complaint Tuesday in St. Lucie County, calling for the court to order a recount of all early ballots in his race for re-election.
While the Democratic candidate, Patrick Murphy, declared victory last week in the close contest for Florida's 18th Congressional District, West has yet to concede, citing the razor thin margin between the two.
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West, a first term Republican congressman and retired Army lieutenant colonel, and Patrick were locked in one of the country's most expensive races for a U.S. House seat, according to a ranking prepared by the Center for Responsive Politics. West raised $17 million through mid-October and Murphy brought in $3.7 million, according for Federal Election Commission records.
On Saturday, Murphy had a roughly 2,400-vote lead over West. The county's canvassing board, however, issued a partial recount Sunday. Since then, Murphy's lead has narrowed, and as of Tuesday evening, he held an advantage of 1,907 votes over West.
Still, the .58% margin falls outside of the .5% needed for an automatic recount.
The votes are considered unofficial until November 20, when election officials have said the results will be certified. But West's campaign argues the certification date should be postponed until all the early ballots are counted.
In a statement Tuesday, the campaign said only three days worth of early voting ballots were considered in the partial recount on Sunday-not the full early voting period of eight days.
Also in his request for a recount, West pointed to a substantial difference in the total number of votes reported Saturday compared to Tuesday–in fact, 799 fewer votes were listed on Tuesday than a few days prior.
Saying "nearly 1,000 votes disappeared from the count" without "any explanation," West's campaign said if the remaining early votes were to be recounted, "additional errors would be uncovered" and the final tally could be revised.
The Secretary of State's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening about West's complaint.
- CNN's Ashley Killough, Gregory Wallace, Kevin Bohn, and Robert Yoon contributed to this report.