Ladra is ashamed of herself. She just barks about voter apathy.
Maggie Fernandez is actually trying to do something about it.
Fernandez was, for six years, an assistant to former County Manager
George Burgess. Then she became Miami-Dade’s Sustainability Program Manager until Mayor Carlos “Cry Wolf” Gimenez laid her off two years ago.
Today, she works as a facilitator for non profits who need to appeal to government or apply for government grants. And, in her spare time, she is on her way to create a mobile app called @OMGCastIT where you can input your zip code and see the percentage of people who voted for the electeds who are making decisions that affect your life.
“This will put an end to the myth that their vote doesn’t matter,” said Fernandez, who is targeting young voters — the most unlikely of all in Miami-Dade. And it doesn’t just aim to change their mind, it directs them to action.
“After their A-HA moment, the app will then connect them to voter information and resources.”
Fernandez told me that the app will also link users to their county website to register to vote and to request an absentee ballot.
“Voter apathy unfortunately exists for millennials between the ages of 18 and 29. There is much debate and discussion as to why but in summary, millennials believe that their vote will not matter or change anything. This is party due to their belief that politicians aren’t interested in addressing issues important to them such as student loan debt, minimum wage or climate change. This also makes them extremely frustrated with the political system and candidates, which then makes them less interested in learning more about the issues and candidates.”
I know she sounds like a Democrat. She said she switched last year after being a longtime Republican because the party just did not represent her position on most social issues.
She wants her app to be ready for a campaign in Miami within the next six to nine months — which would certainly be helpful to drum up a particular voter base for the 2016 mayoral campaign. And that could spell bad news for Gimenez who was elected in 2012, 
by the way, with a scant 126,525 votes, or just under 10 percent of registered voters. But it’s also less than five percent of the population.
So if it helps Miami-Dade School Board Member Raquel Regalado build her base, so be it, Fernandez told Ladra Thursday.
“As a Board member of the League of Women Voters of Miami-Dade County, the intention behind this project is voter engagement and participation. It also to get young people, or anyone, engaged in the county government in order to ensure that their priorities are heard,” Fernandez said. “I really didn’t think about this project playing a part in the upcoming Mayoral election, but that sounds pretty amazing. Personally, I believe it’s Raquel’s time. A smart and fearless woman with a vision and a voice.”
Ladra couldn’t wait for the app to find out what the number of votes were on some of our other illustrious electeds.
Commissioner Bruno Barreiro was last elected with 21,681 votes. While his colleague Audrey Edmonson got 32,003. Javier Souto got 13,008 and the newest on the county dais, Daniella Levine Cava, got 9,082 — and she beat former Commissioner Lynda Bell by less than 600 votes.
In the cities, depending on the size, the numbers are even more unbelievably small. Aventura Mayor Enid Weisman got in thanks to 5,402 votes. Doral Mayor Luigi Boria owes his position to 4,626 votes. Palmetto Bay Mayor Eugene Flinn got 2,508 nods and Homestead Mayor Jeff Porter was elected by 1,650 votes.
Miami and Hialeah, the first and second largest cities in the county, blows those away with 20,414 putting Tomas Regalado in office and 14,826 voters electing Carlos “Castro” Hernandez, respectively.
But in El Portal, Mayor Claudia Cubillos is in office thanks to just 481 people. In Medley, Mayor Roberto Martell was elected with a scant 384 ballots cast in his favor.
Fernandez also wants to have the app test in five to seven other cities or counties at the same time. From there… well, the nation is the limit.
“Once the app is ready for prime time, we will launch in those cities and begin the strategic role out in other cities given the ready availability of elections data,” Fernandez said.
She is working with Marcos Macias, president of Macias Creative, an integrated creative content and brand development agency, that’ “ridiculously obsessed with doing great work,” and Raymond Branger, Partner at Branger_Briz, Fernandez said. The League of Women Voters is partnering to provide voter information and resources.
It’s really an excellent idea and one that might do more to drive up millennial voting than anything else pre or post Barack Obama. How can we make this happen? Call or write the Knight Foundation and tell them that we in Miami-Dade desperately need this app.
Have you seen the kind of people that get elected into office around here by a few thousand votes?
Voter apathy? There could soon be an app for that added by Ladra on
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