That would mean not only a third electoral face-off between Carollo and Suarez, but the possible inclusion of three other candidates who appeared on the Nov. 4 ballot: Kenneth Merker, Juan Miguel Alfonso Perez and Janet Post.

"They're issues for the judge to decide, " Coffey said.

PARADE OF WITNESSES

He intends to introduce testimony from dozens of witnesses, some via depositions, others from the stand.

Documents and handwriting expert Linda Hart will discuss "over 200" alleged discrepancies in signatures between voter registrations and envelopes that contained the absentee ballots. Former FBI agent Hugh Cochran, the main investigative legman for Carollo, will offer details about the alleged use of false residences.

Kevin Hill, a statistician at Florida International University, will provide an analysis of absentee returns from various city districts. Christopher Warren, a government professor who also teaches at FIU, is scheduled to testify about the impact of tainted ballots on the political process.

According to a defense witness list submitted to the court, Portuondo plans to summon Carollo, Suarez, Leahy and members of the election canvassing board.

Portuondo is not pleased that the trial is proceeding at all.

During pretrial hearings, Judge Wilson denied his request to delay the case after Portuondo complained that there wasn't enough time to take the depositions of all of the people targeted by Coffey. The judge said evidence collection could occur as the trial unfolds, if necessary.

MAYOR'S VIEW OF CLAIM

To Suarez, there is very little evidence of fraud, despite statements to the contrary by Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, the county grand jury and Leahy, the elections supervisor.

Leahy has called the Miami mayoral race "much worse" than the 1993 mayoral election in Hialeah, which was thrown out by a judge because of absentee ballot fraud. In that case, lawyers for the plaintiff had asked Dade Circuit Judge Sidney Shapiro to throw out the absentee ballots; he called a new election instead.

But in testimony before a state Senate committee that visited Miami specifically to learn about crooked voting, Suarez declared that he and his wife personally supervised a clean campaign.

"Certainly I can tell you there was no ballot fraud in my campaign, " he testified. "There was no fraud at all. I did not have a single fraudulent ballot cast by absentee."