While people are just getting up to go vote today in one congressional and several county, judicial and state 
races, it looks like the winners have already been chosen.
That’s because there were nearly 83,800 absentee ballots returned and another 29,200 cast at early voting. A total of 112,981 voters have already made their picks and it’s pretty obvious that even if 30,000 people vote today, that might not make a difference in some races that have already been decided via ABs — a phenomena that is increasingly frequent in our 305 elections.
Which means that we should know about some of the key races by 7:15 tonight.
But because several of my readers have requested my predictions, I will take a stab at it with 11 hours to go. Most of it might look like I’m playing it safe. And while some of it might look like nothing more than wishful thinking, I guarantee you I have good reasons to pick two of the underdogs.
Democratic nominee for governor: Charlie Crist, por supuesto.
Congressional GOP primary District 26: Cutler Bay Mayor Ed “Big Mac Daddy” MacDougall brings it 
home. Ladra knows that all the other bloggers have Miami-Dade School Board member Carlos Curbelo on top, but I just haven’t met one single person who is voting for him.
Congressional Dem primary, District 24: Congresswoman Frederica Wilson. It just was never a contest.
For Florida Senate: Oscar Braynon III in District 36.
State rep races: Incumbents Barbara Watson and Daphne Campbell in Districts 107 and 108, openly gay candidate John Paul Alvarez in District 110 and the GOP’s hand-picked successor to termed out Eddy Gonzalez in 111, Brian Avila.
For Miami-Dade School Board: Incumbents Marta Perez and Perla Tabares Hantman hang on to their thrones.
In Miami-Dade Commission races, Ladra likes three incumbents and one challenger: Jose “Pepe” Diaz over Marjorie Figueira, Daniella Levine Cava over Lynda Bell, Jean Monestime over Dorrin Rolle and Javier Souto over Marina Meadows.
Miami-Dade Property Appraiser: Runoff between Eddy Gonzalez, who owns the absentee ballot machinery in voter-fat Hialeah, and Albert Armada, who got the Miami Herald endorsement.
We’ll see how close I came in just over 10 hours.
Election 2014: Ladra predicts picks already made via ABs added by Ladra on
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