The Miami-Dade Elections Department is reporting that initial absentee ballots show an overwhelming majority of those voters want Carlos Alvarez and Natacha Seijas out of here. Early voting numbers and today's election day results are still pending. Earlier this afternoon, like the rest of the precincts in Miami-Dade County, voting was brisk at Barbara Goldman Senior High School.
Not too many folks were casting ballots in an election that saw voters make up their minds in the preceding weeks. The Miami-Dade Elections Department reported this morning that 130,000 early votes and absentee ballots came in. Even with today's low turnout, the odds Mayor Carlos Alvarez and County Commissioner Natacha Seijas will be recalled remain high.
Out of ten voters interviewed, eight said they voted yes to give both of them the boot. We also ran into Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi, who in between glad-handing voters and dancing on Seijas's almost dead, but not yet cold, political career, addressed a recall effort being mounted against him.
We first approached a group of men and women wearing white t-shirts with blue lettering urging people to vote no to the recall. Only one of them, electrician Adrian Llanes, agreed to be interviewed, but not on camera, about his support for Seijas. "She has always supported the unions," he said. "We are going to support her because she has supported a lot of construction projects that bring jobs to Miami-Dade. I think that is important."
Recall volunteer George Lopez and voter Nelson Aleman spoke about their dissatisfaction with Alvarez and Seijas, which can be seen in the video below, as well as Pizzi's response to Miami Lakes resident David Bennett's recall plans against him.
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