Predictions that voter turnout for the Miami recall of a county mayor and a county commissioner would remain low are being proven wrong.
The Miami Herald reported today:
While the political fate of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez and County Commissioner Natacha Seijas in the March 15 recall elections is uncertain, one thing is increasingly clear: Voters aren’t staying on the sidelines.
Turnout in special elections is typically much lower than in general elections. Yet, after one week of early voting, the recall question is generating nearly as much turnout as last November’s general election, which included hot races for Florida governor and U.S. senator.
Norman Braman, an auto dealer and the former owner of the Philadelphia Eagles football team, launched the campaign to recall Miami-Dade Mayor Alvarez.
In 2008, Braman opposed public funding for the Florida Marlins baseball stadium currently under construction in the Little Havana area of Miami. That same year he also filed legal action against a $3 billion remake of downtown Miami.
The Herald states that in, “the first seven days of early voting, nearly 33,000 people had cast ballots. In November, when senatorial hopeful Marco Rubio was pushing to galvanize hometown support to propel his statewide victory, some 35,500 early votes were cast in the county in the first week.”
The Herald also indicates that a recent public opinion poll by Bendixen & Amandi International found that 67 percent of respondents favor Alvarez’s recall and 60 percent support Seijas’ removal.
