Miami-Dade is a COVID hot spot. But political campaigning goes on

The campaign must go on — even in a coronavirus hot spot.

It’s been over a week since early voting began for the Aug. 18 Florida primary, and in Miami-Dade County — home to the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the state — candidates and their campaign staffs are stationing themselves outside of early voting locations in a last ditch effort to sway voters.

“You got to keep your distance. You got to follow all the guidelines and make sure everyone stays safe,” said Joshua Andino, 22, who spent the first week of early voting at a Hialeah library and a Miami Lakes community center campaigning for Marcia Giordano Hansen, a Miami-Dade judicial candidate. “But at the end of the day, there’s only so many ways you can do this, and you want to be able to reach voters at the ballot box and everything, so here we are.”

Miami-Dade has been at the epicenter of the outbreak in a state that has been hit particularly hard by the virus. As of Aug. 11, the county had 135,130 confirmed cases and 1,909 deaths.

But those numbers haven’t stopped candidates and their volunteers. The county’s early voting centers — there are more than 20 of them across the county — have become hubs for campaigning. From Miami Gardens to Homestead, many of the voting centers during the first week of early voting brimmed with campaign volunteers erupting into song and chanting slogans, passing out pamphlets and voting cards to potential voters and applying — and reapplying — hand sanitizer.

According to the Miami-Dade County Elections Department, the same rules as usual apply for campaign volunteers, so individuals, groups or organizations soliciting votes must stand at least 150 feet away from the entrance to the polling center or early voting site.

So six-foot social distancing isn’t a problem.

“I have no fear,” said Julio J. Martinez, 77, a former mayor of Hialeah who was campaigning outside John F. Kennedy Library for Esteban “Steve” Bovo Jr., a Republican county commissioner running for Miami-Dade mayor. “I protect myself. I wipe my hands. I have a bottle of disinfectant.”

He’s volunteered at Hialeah’s early voting site every election for more than 40 years. This year is no different, he said.

“This is beautiful, that people are coming out and exercising their right,” Martinez said.

Thairol Borrego and Alejandra Tocabens, both 17, stood at the other end of the parking lot from Martinez on the first Friday of early voting holding up a sign for Alex Penelas, a Democratic candidate for Miami-Dade mayor. They aren’t old enough to vote, but they wanted a direct way to make a difference, even in the middle of a pandemic.

“We’re just trying to get involved with our community and this country’s ideals, and we found helping a campaign a way to do so,” Tocabens said.

The virus has made campaigning more complicated, Borrego said, but he’s encouraged to see most campaign volunteers social distancing and wearing masks.

“It’s been a little bit difficult, but I feel like a lot of people are going by the rules and they’re actually respecting everyone as far as social distancing,” Borrego said. “I’m just very glad that we’re doing this, and we continue to work harder to ensure that the people are safe.”

Gabriella Ruiz, 20, spent the first Sunday of early voting at the Coral Gables Branch Library to campaign for her mom, Mavel Ruiz, who is running for reelection as a Miami-Dade circuit court judge. For Ruiz, who said she helped with her mother’s first campaign in 2014, reaching voters may be a little bit harder this time, but the energy at the polls is still the same.

“It’s funny seeing everybody here through a mask and socially distancing, and sometimes voters are apprehensive to accept things,” Ruiz said. “But in many ways, it’s the same political atmosphere. Everyone’s trying to get their card into voters. But I still think it’s fun, even with a pandemic.”

In the past week, several early voting sites were bustling as campaigns made their final push to sway voters. In some locations, volunteers swarmed cars, holding up campaign literature and even knocking on car windows. At the North Dade Regional Library in Miami Gardens, trucks with the names of candidates flashing on the front and side blasted music and campaign slogans, while at the West Dade Regional Library in Westchester, an ambulance was called for somebody who had fainted from August heat. And on the first day of early voting at the North Dade Regional Library, two campaign volunteers got into a scuffle over their candidates, prompting a poll worker to intervene.

Campaigns know that early voting sites could be especially important to candidates this year. As of Aug. 11, the number of people voting in-person before Election Day in Miami-Dade was higher this cycle than in 2018, according to data from the Miami-Dade County government website.

Reuben Cox, 64, stood outside the North-Dade Regional Library on the first day of early voting holding up a sign for Daniella Levine Cava, a Democratic candidate for Miami-Dade mayor, and he wore a T-shirt bearing the name of Thomas J. Rebull, a Miami-Dade circuit judge running for reelection.

Cox called the pandemic “a beast of a different nature,” but he said he still planned on going to the Miami Gardens voting center every day of early voting, following social distancing requirements and wearing a mask.

“If they tell you to wear masks,” he said, “wear masks.”

But not all of the campaign action was at the early voting centers. Some candidates, like Jessica Laguerre Hylton, running for House District 117, and Luisa Santos, running for Miami-Dade School Board District 9, split their time between early voting locations and walking door to door to talk to potential voters.

On the first Thursday of early voting, Hylton — with her 6-month-old daughter and husband in tow — walked block-by-block through Richmond Heights, knocking on potential voters’ doors and leaving sanitized campaign materials on door handles and front steps. Not many people opened their door, but for Hylton, who grew up in Richmond Heights and canvassed just blocks from her old middle school, connecting with just one voter affirms her reason for door-knocking in the first place.

“Everybody wants to be heard. Everybody wants to know that someone cares,” Hylton said. “This is home for me. I grew up in South-Dade. I started my business in South-Dade. I fell in love in South-Dade ... so for me, [District] 117, there’s no better place for me to be able to give back to a community that has given so much to me.”

Across the street, Santos, who said she has been going canvassing every day, trudged from house to house under the unrelenting South Florida sun, knocking, leaving a bag of campaign information, backing up at least six feet and then applying hand sanitizer.

“[We’re] really mitigating many of the potential risks that are associated with door-to-door and making sure that we could still help voters make their voice heard in a safe way,” Santos said.

This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 1:24 PM.