‘My vote wasn’t going to change.’ Miami-Dade voters begin to cast early primary ballots
For the first time since the 2020 presidential campaign began in earnest more than a year ago, polls opened Monday in Miami-Dade County, giving more than 600,000 Democrats a chance to cast their ballots in person.
Whether they should is a different matter.
With the race far from settled and candidates dropping left and right, the first brave voters trickled into the county’s early voting centers to cast their ballots for their favorite candidate — or at least, the candidate they like and expect will still be in the race by the time Florida announces the results of its March 17 primary.
At the North Miami library, 31-year-old Jason Fine said his first choice was Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but he feared her campaign was not looking promising in the weeks leading up to the primary. Instead, he cast a vote for former Vice President Joe Biden.
“I figured I was wasting my primary vote,” Fine said about voting for Warren as he left the voting center. “Warren hasn’t performed well yet.”
Other on-the-fence voters felt Biden’s win in South Carolina last week was enough to assure he could keep the momentum going and secure the nomination.
Dorothy Moss was one of about a dozen people who voted Monday at the old Museum of Science building in Coconut Grove. A Democrat, Moss said she was on the fence, deciding between Biden and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Then Biden crushed the field in the South Carolina primary on Saturday and delivered a well-received victory speech.
“It made a big difference,” Moss said. Even with two weeks to go and Super Tuesday the next day, the Coconut Grove resident said she felt confident voting for Biden as soon she could. “My vote wasn’t going to change,” she said.
Democrats who vote early in Florida risk supporting a candidate who might drop out before the primary. Tom Steyer ended his campaign Saturday night, Pete Buttigieg suspended his campaign Sunday, and Amy Klobuchar followed Monday afternoon. Last week, a St. Pete Polls survey found that as much as 11.6% of Florida’s Democratic early voting electorate had cast ballots for the trio.
More than 300,000 Democrats have voted by mail. It wasn’t clear late Monday how many of Florida’s 5 million Democrats took advantage of the first day of early voting as Miami-Dade and other large metropolitan areas around Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville began offering in-person voting. A spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections would not provide figures midway through the day.
But, if early voting tracks with voting by mail — which began three weeks ago — the pace likely won’t pick up until closer to the Florida primary.
While more Democrats have voted by mail this year than in 2016 at this point in the primary, mail ballots are being returned at a slower pace than in 2016, according to data compiled by Let’s Preserve the American Dream, a political non-profit that monitors elections data in Florida and around the country.
At 15 days out from the 2016 primary, nearly 36% of mail voters had cast their ballots, according to the organization. This year, as of Monday, also 15 days out from the Florida primary, Democrats had returned 29% of mail ballots.
Republicans, however, are returning mail ballots at a significantly faster pace than in 2016, said Ryan Tyson, the organization’s executive director. And while more Democrats have voted this year than at this point in 2016, that’s because roughly a quarter-million more Democrats requested mail ballots, he said.
“People don’t like to waste their vote so I suspect vote-by-mail and early voting [numbers] won’t tell us as much this time,” Tyson said. “Expect a big Election Day.”
Miami-Dade’s elections department is expecting between 20% and 25% of the county’s registered voters to participate in the primary by the time all voting has been completed on March 17, according to spokeswoman Suzy Trutie.
The county’s first day of early voting for Republicans and Democrats came on the eve of Super Tuesday, the most important day of the Democratic campaign, when 14 states are set to cast primary votes. The results could further shake up the field of candidates leading into Florida’s primary date.
But plenty of Democrats weren’t waiting.
Steven Schwartzbaum, 65, said he cast an early vote because he didn’t complete the absentee ballot process this year and wanted to avoid long lines on primary day. Schwartzbaum, a North Miami resident, said he voted for Bloomberg.
“I want somebody that can put us together, run the country a different way than Trump has,” he said, adding that he supports Bloomberg’s policy on Israel. “He’s the closest to the moderate that I’m looking for. I’m not an ultra-left liberal.“
In 2016, over 3,600 people voted on the first day of early voting in Miami-Dade. It was the slowest day during the two-week early voting period, and well under the 10,773 people who voted on the last day of early voting. A total of 83,561 people voted early in the last presidential preference primary, according to figures from the Miami-Dade County Elections Department.
Jackie Bell, 82, went to Miami-Dade’s Stephen P. Clark Government Center to cast her early vote and said she also voted for Biden. “To me, I have known Mr. Biden for a very, very long time and I think that at this point in our lives, we need some stability and somebody who will kind of bring us back there,” Bell said. “I just hope he is only looking at four years and then we get somebody young.”
Bell said she knew she was voting for Biden “from the minute he said he was going to run.”
Miami Beach City Hall, one of two early-voting sites in the city, was quiet Monday morning.
Democratic Rep. Michael Grieco, who represents Miami Beach, planted his campaign sign in the grass outside City Hall before casting his vote for Biden.
Grieco, who endorsed Biden, said he would have just as likely voted for Bloomberg.
“Not Bernie” Sanders, he said when first asked who he voted for. “You can quote me on that.”
Ruth Fenichel, a South Beach resident affiliated with the local Trump campaign, said other older Hispanic voters she knows are voting for the Republican and against “socialismo.”
Fenichel, who wore a Trump sign around her neck, said she had seen about five voters at City Hall between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m.
Many residents vote by mail or on Election Day, she said.
“The older Hispanics all support Trump,” she said. “And they’re the ones who vote.”
The early voting period begins on Monday, March 2, and ends on Sunday, March 15. Polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. until March 6, and from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. starting next Monday, March 9, to Friday, March 13.
On the weekends, early voting centers will open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Miami Herald staff writers Douglas Hanks, Aaron Leibowitz, David Smiley and Martin Vassolo contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 2, 2020 at 3:51 PM.
