MIAMI — Honduras' chief diplomat in Miami flips to page 117 of his nation's election manual and insists that his fellow countrymen living here must vote for their new president at the consulate in South Florida.

In Tegucigalpa, more than 900 miles away, government officials say Fernando Agurcia is wrong. His consulate no longer has the authority to organize elections outside the country.

"Right now, we're on standby," Agurcia said. "Not knowing what is going to happen has been very stressful."

Hondurans may go to the polls on Nov. 29 with hopes of resolving the 20-week-old presidential crisis that was triggered by President Manuel Zelaya's sudden ouster in a military coup.

Yet, for the half-million Honduran citizens living in the United States, a new crisis is brewing over where they will vote, and how.

That's because Agurcia was appointed by Zelaya. A framed photo of the toppled populist hung prominently in the consul general's West Miami-Dade office where he defended his authority to administer the Nov. 29 balloting.

But the interim government of Roberto Micheletti, shunned by the Obama administration and Organization of American States, ordered Zelaya's diplomats out. The U.S. State Department told him to stay.

The showdown in South Florida, where 61,000 Hondurans live, may not be a tipping point on the magnitude of the 2000 Bush-Gore elections that hung on dimpled chads and butterfly ballots.

Still, it is rattling nerves in particular here because the more outspoken Hondurans support Micheletti and his coup — and don't want to vote in a process administered by a Zelaya ally.

In the months since Zelaya's June 28 ouster, South Florida's small Honduran community has united around a mutual concern for the political future back home. Activists, some for the first time, organized barbecue fundraisers for presidential candidates, voter registration drives and rallies.

Beyond Miami, Hondurans will be invited to vote in Chicago, Houston, New Orleans, New York, and Washington, D.C. — all cities with Honduran consulates.

In 2005, when the last presidential election was held in Honduras, that nation shipped 11,000 ballots to the U.S. Only 990 votes were cast. This year, Tegucigalpa has sent 18,000 ballots based on registration.

But rather than have citizens submit them at their local consulate, the Honduran elections council says it will collect the votes independently.

"The consulate has nothing to do with the electoral process," Carlos Romero, director of Honduras' Supreme Tribunal of Elections, said by telephone.