Riptide

“This has left me feeling like there is something awful wrong in our local government,” Varela says. “It's a deep betrayal.”

Emiliaand Osmundo Soria have lived in the same house in Hialeah for eighteen years. Most every election they cast their ballot at a nearby high school. Four years ago they backed Miami-Dade Commissioner Natacha Millan. But at the end of June, when the commissioner came to their door to once again ask for their support, the Soriases told her this time they would vote for her opponent, Roberto Casas. Five weeks later the couple received two certified letters from the county elections department. They demand proof of residence from the Sorias. Who inspired the letter? Millan of course. “She was trying to take away our vote,” argues Osmundo Soria. According to the elections department, Millan has reported about 250 people who she says no longer live at the addresses where they are registered. The elections department says the majority of those people indeed do not reside at those addresses. Millan did not return a call seeking comment.