Florida

Miami-Dade Begins Early Voting Monday While Vote-by-Mail Requests Soar

The county will allow registered voters to cast their ballots at sites across the county each day through Sunday, August 16th

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Voters in Miami-Dade County will get a chance to begin early voting for the August 18th primaries on Monday.

The county will allow registered voters to cast their ballots at sites across the county each day through Sunday, August 16th. Click here for a list of sites across the county and hours each site will be open.

With the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the area, county election officials have seen a record number of requests for vote-by-mail ballots. Miami-Dade elections workers have already mailed out over 330,000 of those ballots.

“The last largest initial drop we did was for a presidential election and it was around 310,000, so we’ve already surpassed what the initial mail drop is,” said Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Christina White. “Will it end up exceeding presidential election volume at the end? We don’t know."

Voters will select party nominees for the US House of Representatives and State Attorney. Voters will also decide on non-partisan races like county mayor, school board and judges. 

 NSU Political Science Professor Charles Zelden said voters’ approach to elections comes with a new zeal.

“Over time we sort of gotten into the status situation where both sides really do feel like it is a death match and a loss is the end of all,” said Zelden.

Things will be different at voting sites because of the coronavirus pandemic. Hand sanitizers, social distancing and poll workers in full personal protective gear will be in place at each location.

“I don’t want this pandemic that we are dealing with to turn any voters off,” White said. “You have three ways to vote, whichever is more comfortable, just make sure that you participate. It is a very important election."

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