More early voting in Hialeah, Beach than Homestead, Miami

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It seems that more early voters are participating in city elections in Hialeah and Miami Beach than they are in Miami and Homestead.

Of course, there’s no definitive way to know, because you can vote from pretty much any early voting location as opposed to just from your precinct on Election Day. And the Stephen P. Clark Center, which is also a transportation hub for Metrorail commuters from all over the 305 and even the 954, recorded the highest number of votes at 471 as of Wednesday.

Almost 3,200 people have voted countywide, since there is also a question on the ballot about an $830-million bond to modernize Jackson Memorial Hospital, which I don’t is going over too well in this anti-tax climate (more on that later).

But the numbers reported by the Elections Department so far show that more than twice as many people voted in the first three days at the John F. Kennedy library in Hialeah than voted at Miami City Hall. They were tied the first day, with 80 votes cast at each location. But there were 128 and 148 votes cast in Hialeah Tuesday and Wednesday, compared with 53 and 54 in Miami. Poor Miami will really suffer the lack of a mayoral race as anchor.

Candidate Julio Rodriguez, a young activist and longshot running against Council Vice President Luis Rodriguez told Ladra the voting had been slow, but steady, and that it had not been as fun and eventful the 2011 race that pit Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez and the members of his “Seguro Que Yes” Council against the larger-than-life former Mayor Raul Martinez and his slate, all of whom lost. Rodriguez has spent much of his time campaigning with co-candidate Marcos Miralles, who is running against Councilman Paul “Pablitiquitico” Hernandez.

But there was still a little bit of a circus atmosphere, with a guy on a bicycle and the shouting back and forth. Mayoral candidate Juan Santana also reportedly got into a screaming match with Hernandez, who seems a lot more rattled and concerned than he lets on. But that was expected.

Former Mayor Julio “The Other” Martinez told Ladra that the rain has kept some voters away but that he expects it to pick up in the next few days and get have much bigger turnout over the weekend.

But Hialeah, the second largest city in the county, is just a little behind the third in early voting: Miami Beach has tallied the most pre-Nov. 5 ballots so far in a municipal location, with 365 at Miami Beach City Hall as of Wednesday (129, 117 and 119 votes in the three days). And seven more people voted at the City Hall in Florida City, which had a total of 194 ballots cast, than at Miami City Hall.

The big days for local early voting are supposed to be Saturday and Sunday, and, yes, Ladra plans to take a long walk and visit a couple of the different locations to talk to voters and spy on candidates.

Of course, early voting has not materialized as heavy as some candidates, consultants and even elections officials had expected after last year’s sudden rush during the presidential primary.

Like most if not all candidates, Miami Commission Candidate Alex Dominguez — who has an uphill battle against Commissioner Frank Carollo — is providing transportation to and from City Hall and one of his campaigners said that the people who have taken advantage of the free ride are usually senior absentee voters who have grown wary amid the multiple investigations and scandals.

Of course, early voting even at the highest-performing locations pale in comparison to the 40,000-plus absentee ballots that have already been returned countywide just through Wednesday. Those probably don’t count almost 5,000 more ABs were requested since the first batch of 187,000 went out the first day, Oct. 15.

Of the 40,000 that were returned, about 12,500 were from the four municipalities with city elections, and the bulk of those came from Miami (6,218) and Hialeah (4,408).

  absentee ballots, early voting