Some of you, apparently not a whole lot, but some went out to the polls today to elect mayors and various council people and commissioners in Miami, Miami Beach and Hialeah.
Though, even if you didn't make it out to the polling places we hope you're at least somewhat interested in who won, and what it means. So Riptide will be liveblogging the election results tonight, most likely startin g around 7 pm, and we'll try to make it as fun and exciting as possible.
We'll be keeping close eyes on all the Miami elections, that wild Miami Beach commission race, and that unfortunate Hialeah council race featuring a former beauty queen and a disgraced cop.
Live blog starts here in reverse chronological order.
10:11 - I think this is going to be it for us tonight in regards to this live blog, but expect more coverage tonight and tomorrow morning.
10:08 - The Miami Beach Commission Group 2 is still too close to call to tell who will go to the run-off.
10:06 - Miami Commission results: District 3 - Frank Carollo will win outright. District 4 - Manolo Reyes and Francis Suarez will go to a run off. District 5 - Michelle Spence-Jones wins with 83%.
10:03 - Regalado is celebrating his landslide victory in Miami. Just to reiterate what we said earlier: Joe Sanchez got a smaller percentage of the vote than shock jock Enrique Santos got in 2005 when he ran against Manny Diaz. Man.
9:46 - With only two precincts yet to report, Gabrielle Redfern has taken the edge for second place in Miami Beach's Group III race. Michael Gongora is still in the lead, but he'll have to face a run-off with the second place vote-getter.
9:44 -Frank Carollo is at 53% in Miami's District 3 seat. With 3 precincts to go, it's looking like he'll avoid a run-off.
9:40 - With 34 of 36 precincts reporting Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower has won re-election with well over 3/4ths of the vote. Commissioner Jerry Libbin has also won re-election with over 80% of the vote. Yawn.
9:38 - 20 minutes, and nothing new to report. Off topic: but it's interesting to see how differently Fox and MSNBC are spinning the Virginia governor results. Ugh, politics. Ugh, media.
9:17 - With 40 out of 52 precincts reporting in Hialeah we're just going to put a stake in that city's races. These aren't scientific calls, but c'mon, you knew the result before polls opened: Incumbent Mayor Julia Robaino has won re-election (right now he's at 93% of the vote), while incumbent commissioners Katherine Cue (with 90% right now) and Luis Gonzalez (with 84%) are cruising to re-election as well. We won't mention them again, unless anything absolutely insane happens with the remaining 12 precincts.
9:08 - The Miami mayor results of 2005: Manny Diaz with 65% vs Radio shock jock Enrique Santos 26%. If Joe Sanchez, who's served on the City Commission for over a decade, can't even get the same percent of the vote as a shock jock, isn't that pretty embarrassing?
8:51 - In Miami Beach commission Group III the question is quickly becoming who will go to a run-off with Michael Gongora: Young former aid to the Mayor Alex Fernandez or activist Gabrielle Redfern. There's less than 50 votes between the two with half of the precincts in.
8:47 - 31 precincts are in for Miami, and Regalado is still north of 70%, while Sanchez is remanning south of 30%.
7:53 - Miami Commission Candidate Mavel Lopez's website is down. Weird, but her Facebook tells us she's a fan of Texas Governor Rick Perry...So that's, um, interesting. Of course, she's losing to Frank Carollo right now, but she might make it to a run-off with him.
8:38 - Let's not assume that early and absentee voting is necessarily going to be indicative of the final result, but right now the only question is if Miami's district 3 (that's the Carollo race) will go to a run-off or not.
8:33 - Just saw the WSVN promo for their 10 o'clock news (no, I do not regularly watch So You Think You Could Dance), and they're not even teasing elections as a top story.
8:25 - A whopping 8 out of 216 precincts in the entire county are completely reported, but votes actually made on election day are starting to trickle in.
8:12 - In non-Miami election news: "Republican Bob McDonnell easily won the Virginia governor's race Tuesday, just a year after the state went overwhelmingly for President Barack Obama and the Democrats, NBC News reported."
8:02 - If one controversial Miami Mayor's brother (Frank Carollo) is leading in one open commission race and another controversial Miami Mayor's son (Francis Suarez) is leading in the other, what does that say about Democracy in Miami? And considering those said controversial Mayors were involved the epic-ly shady '97 election, we wonder how well they'll work together if both elected. Next time, you guys, seriously, can we get some new blood in City Hall?
7:48 - None of the TV stations are doing live coverage, but Access Hollywood just has an interesting poll about Robert Pattinson.
7:33 - Early optical voting is in. Nothing's changed much except the District 4 race in Miami got a bit tighter between Suarez and Reyes.
7:28 - In the travesty of democracy known as Hialeah, it's incumbents so far in a wash. Mayor Robaina has 94%, and Councilmember Luis Gonzalez has 85%, and our favorite ex-Beauty Queen Katherine Cue has 91% so far.
7:23 - Over on Miami Beach the races are closer so far
- In Group II, Jorge Exposito has 45%, Maria Mayer has 31%, and Sherry Roberts trails with 24%.
- In Group III, drunk driving Godzilla (according to a recent flyer) Michael Gongora is leading with 45% to Alex Fernandez's 32% and Gabrielle Redfern's 24%.
- Incumbent Mayor Matti Bower has 79%, and Commissioner Jerry Libbin has 82%
7:16 - And the first numbers are online. Apparently it's (a part of) the absentee ballot vote.
- Mayor of Miami: Regalado leads Sanchez 71.15% - 28.85% with 13,144 votes counted
- Miami Commissioner District 3: FrankCarollo leads by 57.89%, with Mavel Lopez has second in the five way race with 23.55% of the 3,282 votes cast.
- Miami Commissioner District 4: This is a lot closer. Francis Suarez has about 49% to Manolo Reyes' 39%.
- Miami Commissioner District 5: It's incumbent Micheele Spence-Jones with 85.15% of the absentee vote.
7:05 -- We love how Joe Sanchez keeps noting he's lost 18 lbs by walking around town through out the election. Maybe if things don't pan out for him in the election he can pen a diet and exercise book, "How to Lose Weight and Elections!"
7:00 -- Polls just closed. Miami Mayor candidate Regalado has told media he's already heard from Governor Charlie Crist about stimulus spending, before polls closed. Apparently, if elected, the two will meet next week. But Charlie Crist thought he'd win the senate primary with no problem, so we're not sure if he's the best political forecaster.
6:55 -- Polls close in just 5 minutes, and Riptide is here, eagerly waiting the results.
