In 2000, six-year-old Elián González’s rescue off the coast of Florida sparked an international custody battle — and a political earthquake. As federal agents seized the Cuban boy from his Miami relatives, outrage tore through South Florida’s Cuban American community. Their fury became a movement: el voto castigo — the “punishment vote” meant to sink Vice President Al Gore.

At the center stood Miami-Dade’s glamorous Democratic mayor, Alex Penelas — People magazine’s “Sexiest Politician” — who turned his back on Gore as the election reached a fever pitch. On Election Night, chaos reigned. Florida swung from Gore to Bush to “too close to call.” Concessions were made and retracted. What followed was 36 days of recounts, lawsuits, street protests, and pure political theater — a battle where strategy, ethnicity, and ego collided.

With sharp humor and insider access, 537 VOTES exposes the operatives and power brokers who turned Miami into ground zero of the 2000 election and unravels how local politics tipped the balance of national power.

When the Supreme Court stopped the recount, George W. Bush won by just 537 votes — a margin so small it still echoes through American politics.

Fast-paced, irreverent, and revealing, 537 VOTES captures the wild mix of ambition, identity, and media spectacle that turned Miami’s streets into the front lines of a democracy in crisis.