As early voting starts, 12,700 ABs mailed in already

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Even as the enabling legislation stalls in Tallahassee, early voting begins in Miami-Dade County today for the deal to provide more than $350 million in tax dollars to roof and renovate the privately-owned SunLife Stadium where the Miami Dolphins play.

But already close to 13,000 people have voted.

According to the running daily tab posted online by the Miami-Dade Elections Department, there have been 12,722 absentee ballots returned. And that is as of Friday, a week before we will know if this is going to even be possible after May 3.

And 12,705 of those ABs, which arrived in mailboxes starting Wednesday of last week, came in on Friday.

It may seem like a bunch. It did to Ladra. But it’s less than 10 percent of the 184,872 that have been mailed. And it’s a one-question ballot, for most people, on an issue that has been well publicized.

“Since it is such a simple ballot, without a lot of candidates, people don’t have to do a lot of research,” said Elections Department spokeswoman Christina White.

That’s what Ladra is afraid of.

Should the majority of those people be swayed by the mailers and the phone banks in favor of the stadium deal — which calls for $289 million in tourist bed taxes and $90 million in state sales rebates — then this showing might be optimistic for Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and his $1 million Miami First campaign. Especially in light of the absence of any real, significant outreach by the opponents.

But if the majority of those people are the angry, suspicious voters that have voiced strong distaste for this “unprecedented” negotiation, as polls — including the most recent one (more on that later) have shown — then maybe we have nothing to worry about.

Again, that’s even if this thing survives Tallahassee before session ends Friday. “Five days in Tallahassee, especially the last five days, is in dog years,” said Miami First co-chair Jorge Arizurieta on the Michael Putney show Sunday.

Five days in Miami-Dade resulted in 12,722 absentee votes. Let’s see what the next two weeks bring.

ABs can continue to be mailed through May 8th, so that means we could top 200,000 requests before this is through on May 14. And the wait time at all the early voting sites today at 11 a.m. was zero.