Lots of absentee undervotes in Miami Beach mayoral race

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In Miami Beach, the mayoral race was certainly the most exciting contest on the ballot. But it wasn’t the only one.

Yet it seems that hundreds of voters who picked millionaire businessman Philip Levine simply did not vote for any of the candidates in the commission races or answer any of the six referendum questions that were also put to Beach residents.

These so-called “undervotes” are reason for concern because they usually indicate absentee ballot shenanigans. And this is a race where more absentee ballots were cast than ever in Miami Beach history and where Levine may be elected with the smallest margin ever, holding to 50.48%.

It’s not just about the mayoral race. The suppression of participation in commission races could have forced runoffs there where there might not have been any. Because while the incumbents, Commissioner Jorge Exposito and Mayor Matti Bower (running for commission) may have beaten their opponents in absentee ballots by the hundreds, they are the ones who missed out on these undervotes.

More than 3,700 people voted by mail in the mayor’s race, but less than 3,500 voted in each of the commission races.

Interestingly enough, both the incumbents running for office in commission seats handily beat their opponents in ABs, while Commissioner Commissioner Michael Gongora, who is running for mayor, came in with about 600 fewer absentee ballots than Levine, the newcomer.

Gongora, who came in number two but could still face Levine in a runoff if the recount today puts the media mogul under 50 percent, told Ladra he heard about the undervotes when he was knocking on doors in a Miami Beach Housing Authority property called the Lulav Building on Lenox Avenue, a hive of mostly Hispanic elderly voters.

“I was talking to some voters and I heard that there had been a lady picking up ballots, telling them only to vote in the mayor’s race,” Gongora told Ladra Friday. He went back to one of the senior voters who gave him that information to see if she would sign an affidavit, but the woman did not want to get involved, he said.

Still, authorities know where the building is. They should take it upon themselves to visit residents of the Lulav and ask about this mysterious woman who instructed them to skip the other races. Did she also tell them who to vote for? My bet is on yes.

Is there video in this building? By any chance?

While they are at it, investigators might also want to visit the Rebecca Towers, where I heard more AB shenanigans were played.

It should not be up to candidates or bloggers or political activists to have to go and get people to come forward. It should be up to the authorities — prosecutors with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and investigators with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust — to do their jobs and investigate any credible suspicion that the electoral process is being manipulated.

It is in the community’s best interest.

  Miami Beach mayoral race, Michael Gongora, Philip Levine