Live election day updates: Here’s what’s going on at the polls in Miami-Dade County
Voters in several Miami-Dade communities are at the polls on Tuesday. Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
While this isn’t a presidential election where turnout and feelings are strong, try telling that to residents in Miami Beach.
On the golden sandbar, which some feel has been tarnished of late, crime is a prime concern.
Will voters reelect two-term Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, who has pushed to pause the partying along South Beach’s Ocean Drive? And how will a non-binding ballot question that asks whether bars should be forced to close at 2 a.m. rather than 5 am., play out?
Other cities have elections, too.
▪ In Miami, where voters will decide on the mayor’s seat and two commissioner’s seats — including Joe Carollo’s — Mayor Francis Suarez’s reelection bid seemed assured. But amid national hype and local gripes, could there be an upset?
▪ Hialeah — with some familiar faces — and Sunny Isles Beach have mayoral races. In the latter, that’s because Sunny Isles Beach Mayor George “Bud” Scholl resigned in August to focus on his full-time job as president and CEO of the OneBlood blood bank. A special election determines who fills his seat.
▪ Homestead voters will decide whether to re-elect Mayor Steve Losner, or replace him with former Councilman Elvis Maldonado. Councilwoman Jenifer N. Bailey is also on the ballot, facing a challenge from Valnecia “Val” Brown.
▪ And could Miami-Dade get its 35th municipality? Biscayne Gardens is vying to become the latest incorporated locale if enough voters in a five-mile area of unincorporated land outside Miami Gardens, Opa-locka, North Miami and North Miami Beach decide they want incorporation. If they do, a second referendum would be necessary to create a municipal charter.
▪ Democrats and Republicans in Broward and Palm Beach counties will also vote in primaries to decide who will replace Alcee Hastings.
▪ Also, there are 17 people vying for a position on Coconut Grove’s Village Council.
Polls closed, results being tallied
Polls across Miami-Dade County have closed, and now comes the next step of Election Night: results.
“By all accounts the election in all six areas went smoothly,” said Christina White, Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections. “We don’t know what the total turnout is yet, but it looks like some areas may have exceeded turnout in previous elections.”“
At The Miami-Dade Elections Department headquarters separate canvassing boards for each of the six elections were set to reconvene around 7 p.m.
In one room, the boards for Miami Beach, Miami, Homestead and Hialeah were waiting for the ballots to check whether they can be accepted.
Results will be pouring through the night.
— CARLI TEPROFF
The afternoon vote in Hialeah
Under a persistent mist, Adoración Marrero and Eudi Marrero went to vote at South East Park on Ninth Avenue and 10th South East Hialeah Street. The married couple has lived in the city for 40 years.
“I am going to vote for Bovo, because among all the candidates, he is the one that interests me the most, although I am not 100% convinced,” said Adoracion Marrero, 83, who hopes that more attention will be paid to East Hialeah.
“Everything is always for the West. I am interested in the East improving the streets and that the police monitor more,” Adoración added.
A few voters arrived at the polling station at the fire station on 4200 East 8th Avenue in Hialeah around 1:30 p.m. One of the few who got to vote was Carlos Gutiérrez, who said that he voted for Esteban “Steve” Bovo for mayor because of his “experience.”
Gutiérrez, 72, acknowledged that former President Donald Trump’s support for Bovo influenced his decision because he is a Republican, but he said he knows Bovo and the ideas he supports, and in the end the decisive thing was knowing his work.
Gutiérrez also voted for Carl Zogby, who is seeking reelection to the Council.
In the same precinct, Andrea, 47, who asked not to give her last name, said she planned to vote for Bovo, because he supports a smaller form of government and low taxes. The fact that Trump has endorsed Bovo is “reassuring” to her, she said. Also important in her decision was the support of Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“In my family we are huge followers of DeSantis and I know that Bovo will work well with him,” said Andrea, who has always lived in Hialeah.
— SARAH MORENO
Small turnout so far in Homestead
Few voters turned out during Election Day voting in Homestead, where less than 8% of voters cast ballots in the primary last month.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 2,570 voters had cast ballots for mayor and a commissioner to represent Seat 4, which is just 7.26% of those registered.
Peggy Jacobsen, 80, was born and raised in Homestead and has voted in every election, usually on Election Day.
She was waiting out the rain Tuesday, but planned on making a last-minute decision when she arrived at her polling location, Homestead’s William F. Dickinson Community Center.
Jacobsen, who still manages her family’s business, Jacobsen’s Antiques and Collectibles, lives on the west side of town where she says the streets have been plagued with illegal dumping. Jacobsen, who was undecided ahead of going to the polls, said she hopes whoever wins addresses neighborhood beautification, as well as traffic.
“Been in Homestead all my life,” she said. “I don’t like the way this city is going down the tubes.”
— SAMANTHA GROSS
Weighing in on that ‘sapingo’ crack
A video of two mayoral candidates in Hialeah yelling insults at each other resurfaced a debate of Cuban slang on the eve of the competitive election: what actually is a “sapingo”?
Candidate Esteban “Steve” Bovo was heard yelling the Cuban word in a video recorded on Sunday at the John F. Kennedy Library early voting site. The moment was the culmination of a tense confrontation with a crowd of volunteers supporting candidate Fernando Godo, a conservative YouTuber and political commentator.
On Tuesday, the Royal Spanish Academy — RAE in Spanish— which evaluates and adopts official changes in the Spanish language, said in a tweet the word “sapingo” is an offensive adjective in Cuban slang that refers to a person who is “stupid, useless or good for nothing.”
Read the full story here.
— BIANCA PADRÓ OCASIO
Special congressional election in Broward, Palm Beach
It’s possible that a few dozen votes will determine South Florida’s newest member of Congress.
Voters in parts of Broward and Palm Beach Counties are deciding between 11 Democrats in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, who died in April. So far, turnout is low with just over 25,000 votes cast in Broward County and just over 8,000 votes cast in Palm Beach County ahead of Election Day.
The Democratic primary will determine who heads to Congress in a majority Black district that is Florida’s most Democratic-leaning, though Tuesday’s primary winner must wait until after a January general election to take office.
The leading candidates include five politicians currently in office and a sixth who has poured millions of her own money into the race.
State Reps. Omari Hardy of Palm Beach County and Bobby DuBose of Broward County, state Sen. Perry Thurston of Broward County, along with Broward Commissioners Dale V.C. Holness and Barbara Sharief are the elected officials in the race.
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a healthcare executive from Broward who ran against Hastings in 2020 and who was campaigning for a rematch before his death, poured more than $5 million of her own money into the race.
The other candidates running are Public speaker and author Elvin Dowling, retired Navy officer Phil Jackson, former state Rep. Priscilla Taylor, Emmanuel Morel and Dr. Imran Uddin Siddiqui.
See where the large field of candidates stands on the issues by clicking here.
The Democratic primary has not attracted national attention, with the progressive and centrist wings of the party largely staying out of the race. A few outside groups jumped into the race late, largely running ads both supporting and attacking Hardy, the most left-leaning candidate among the leading contenders.
Republican candidates Jason Mariner and Greg Musselwhite are also competing for the congressional seat, though the winner is not expected to be competitive in a general election against the Democratic primary winner and a group of no-party candidates.
— ALEX DAUGHERTY
Miami mayor casts his ballot
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who is likely to win reelection Tuesday, cast his ballot around 10 a.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church in Coconut Grove.
“I’m confident, and I’m appreciative of the confidence that our residents have invested in me over the last four years,” Suarez said after he voted. “I’m hopeful and asking them for their support for another four years.”
Suarez was first elected mayor in 2017 after two terms as a city commissioner. He is the Magic City’s first Miami-born mayor, and son of former mayor Xavier Suarez.
Suarez’s reelection bid comes at a time when his national profile has grown. A Republican, he is considered by some as a potential candidate for higher office in the future.
Asked about his future political ambitions, he said he’s focused on reelection and being sworn in as the next president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, where he said he wants to “create an agenda for America.”
He said past that, it’s too early to tell.
“I’ve been around politics since I was 2-years-old, and I can tell you that politics is a lot about opportunity and sort of being at the right place at the right time,” he said. “So it’s very hard to say. If I would’ve told you in 2013 who the president was going to be in 2016, you would’ve said, ‘You’re crazy.’”
— JOEY FLECHAS
How is it going, Biscayne Gardens?
In overcast weather in the morning, a steady stream of voters arrived at Mount Olives Church of God to decide if Biscayne Gardens would become Miami-Dade County’s 35th municipality.
“I am nervous about the taxes,” said Alain Ducasse, a taxi driver who voted against incorporating. “I am worried about the services they will provide us for the cost.”
Ducasse’s views echoed the messages of the anti-incorporation campaign.
A vocal group of a half-dozen demonstrators around the church held red and white signs, yelling “we can’t afford it.” The signs encouraging voters to vote against incorporating can be seen across lawns in Biscayne Gardens.
“Nobody wants this, we are just fine the way we are,” said Bruce Lamberto, one of the lead organizers of the group demonstrating against incorporating. “We don’t need more politicians.”
Elizabeth Judd feels differently and voted in favor of incorporating.
“We will become a beautiful city like all the other cities that are incorporated,” Judd said. “We will have the ability to spend that money on making our community better.”
Judd is 80 years old and has been living in Biscayne Gardens since 1993. She feels the anti-incorporation campaign has been misleading voters.
“They say it is a bad tax. It is not a bad tax,” she said. “When you are paying for keeping your property value up, that is not a bad tax, that is called being an American.”
A retired worker from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Judd stood outside the church for hours telling people about why they should vote to incorporate.
“I have been spit on and yelled at,” she said. “But I know we should incorporate.”
— JESSE LIEBERMAN, Miami Herald news intern
Need transportation?
Lime is offering free e-scooter rides to and from the polls on Election Day to reduce transportation barriers such as cost and lack of car ownership for all Miami residents, the company said in a news release.
To access the service, call up your Lime app and use the promotional code MIAMIRIDETOPOLLS2021 for two free rides up to 30 minutes on any Lime scooter.
“Our goal is to help the people in the cities we serve and making it easier to cast your ballot is one way we can help make a difference. We believe in encouraging participation in democracy and we’re proud to offer everyone in Miami a free ride to and from their poll site on Tuesday. We know how important local elections are and we want to do our part to boost turnout,” said CJ Shaw, Lime’s general manager.
We will update this report through the day.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
