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Miami Dysfunction: That landslide win Mayor Suarez brags about? That's not the whole story - Opinion
Miami Dysfunction: That landslide win Mayor Suarez brags about? That’s not the whole story | OpinionMiami Mayor Francis Suarez announced his 2024 Republican presidential primary bid with a big claim.
Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, Suarez boasted about turning his “Democrat-dominated city into one that has successfully reelected this Republican mayor in 2017 and 2021 by nearly 80% of the vote.”
Suarez is right. He won election and reelection in Miami with 85% and 78% of votes cast, respectively. And that sounds impressive. But here’s what he didn’t say: Just 14% of voters went to the polls — fewer than 31,000 in a city with more than 217,000 registered voters in 2021.
That’s not a mandate from his constituents. Far from it.
Poor voter engagement is not a Suarez problem — it’s a Miami problem. It’s partly — though probably not entirely — the result of the elections for mayor and City Commission taking place in odd years when no other big races are on the ballot. Off-cycle voter turnout is generally lower.
So why does Miami put important decisions on the ballot when voters aren’t paying attention? In November, most of the City Commission will be up for reelection, and we doubt many residents know about it.
Voter participation is an embarrassment for Miami-Dade County’s largest city — a world-class destination, tech hub and financial center. Turnout hasn’t surpassed 16% in any election in the past decade. It once got as low as 8.5% in a 2015 runoff, data from the county’s Supervisor of Elections office shows.
Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, Suarez boasted about turning his “Democrat-dominated city into one that has successfully reelected this Republican mayor in 2017 and 2021 by nearly 80% of the vote.”
Suarez is right. He won election and reelection in Miami with 85% and 78% of votes cast, respectively. And that sounds impressive. But here’s what he didn’t say: Just 14% of voters went to the polls — fewer than 31,000 in a city with more than 217,000 registered voters in 2021.
That’s not a mandate from his constituents. Far from it.
Poor voter engagement is not a Suarez problem — it’s a Miami problem. It’s partly — though probably not entirely — the result of the elections for mayor and City Commission taking place in odd years when no other big races are on the ballot. Off-cycle voter turnout is generally lower.
So why does Miami put important decisions on the ballot when voters aren’t paying attention? In November, most of the City Commission will be up for reelection, and we doubt many residents know about it.
Voter participation is an embarrassment for Miami-Dade County’s largest city — a world-class destination, tech hub and financial center. Turnout hasn’t surpassed 16% in any election in the past decade. It once got as low as 8.5% in a 2015 runoff, data from the county’s Supervisor of Elections office shows.
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