Here we go. The political season just got real.
Miami-Dade’s Elections Department has mailed out the first batch of vote-by-mail or absentee ballots for the upcoming Nov. 4 municipal elections in Miami, Miami Beach, Hialeah, Homestead and Surfside — which means the mailboxes in those zip codes are about to get a workout.
About 39,000 ballots rolled out of the county’s elections warehouse in Doral Monday morning, and were loaded onto a U.S. Postal Service truck under the watchful eye of the media and Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina García, who made sure everyone saw the process. Cameras rolling, ballots stacked, democracy in motion.
Read related: The end of absentee ballots? Who’s crying in Miami-Dade County?
The bulk of those (21,258) were sent to Miami voters, who are looking at a historic mayoral election to replace the termed out Francis Suarez — with no fewer than 13 candidates — and two commission races, including the District 3 race to replace the termed out Joe Carollo, who is running for mayor. Another 8.041 went to city of Hialeah voters, which seems low.
“Building the public’s trust through secure, fair, accurate, and accessible elections is my pledge,” García said in a statement, adding that vote-by-mail remains one of three ways Miami-Dade voters can cast their ballots — along with early voting and Election Day itself.
On Monday, before the TV cameras, Garcia said that the absentee voting process was safe, even though President Donald Trump says otherwise, because election workers check the signature every step of the way. “Voting by mail in Florida is very secure,” she said.
Maybe it is now, after several local and state laws have changed. And as a former campaign operative for the likes of former Congressman David Rivera and former Sen. Frank Artiles — who paid a sham candidate $50,000 to fix a Florida Senate race in 2020 — Garcia should know better than anyone.
Miami-Dade has a long storied past of absentee ballot fraud and other misgivings. The boleteros who handle these ABs have long been part of the local voting scene. They didn’t just create just an industry. They created a culture.
Read related: Frank Artiles arrested for sham state senate election — but was he alone?
One of the oldest known and possibly most notorious chapters was the 1997 Miami mayoral election. There was evidence of fraud — people casting ABs from Westchester, Broward and beyond the grave — that eventually overturned the election and won The Miami Herald a Pulitzer for investigative journalism (Ladra’s second).
It was pretty quiet on the absentee front until 2011, when several people were caught harvesting absentee ballots during the special post-recall mayoral election and 2012, when a Hialeah ballot ring was investigated by the Miami-Dade Police public corruption unit later decimated by former Mayor Carlos Gimenez after (read: because) he was implicated in it.
Among the characters arrested for some kind of absentee ballot shenanigans: Sergio “El Tio” Robaina, a relative of former Mayor Julio Robaina, Miami-Dade District 13 aide Anamary Pedrosa — who was working in then county Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo‘s Hialeah office when she was caught stuffing ballots into the trunk of her car — and Deisy Cabrera, who got a “pan con bistec” delivered to her in a paper bag by Commissioner Rene Garcia after she was released.
In response, Miami-Dade passed a law that nobody could carry more than two ballots at a time.
In 2013, two men were arrested after they allegedly visited a Homestead home and filled out four people’s absentee ballots against their desires. They also allegedly possessed more than two ballots at a time.
As the use of vote-by-mail or absentee ballots increased, the Florida legislature also responded, with new ID requirements and ballot drop box limits in 2020 and a new law that requires the renewal of absentee or vote-by-mail ballot requests after every major election cycle. Previously, an absentee ballot request would last at least two cycles.
Many of the campaigns for the candidates in these five cities with elections next month have been focused on getting absentee ballot requests submitted. And this is the moment they’ve all been waiting — and fundraising — for.
Stacks of ABs are loaded on a truck and headed for the post office.
Now that those ballots are out, campaign mailers will start hitting doorsteps fast. Expect the flood of glossy flyers, “urgent messages,” and last-minute text “reminders” to vote. Some will arrive so often you’ll start to think your mail carrier’s on the campaign payroll. Then it will be the phone calls from the campaigns to make sure you mailed your ballot back.
This is when campaigns shift from yard signs and social media to the real battleground — the kitchen table. Because once people start filling in those bubbles, it’s game on. Because now that those ballots are out — every candidate, consultant, and campaign manager in the 305 is hitting “send” on a hundred different voter contact plans.
Enjoy the brief calm before your mailbox fills with “friends of,” and “for the future of,” and “we can’t afford four more years of…”
You know the drill.
Let the games begin.

A reminder for voters
If you want to vote by mail and haven’t requested your ballot yet, there’s still time — but pay attention to the fine print.
Under Florida’s new rules, any vote-by-mail requests made before the 2024 general election expired on Jan. 1, 2025. That means you have to renew your request if you haven’t already.
Ballots cannot be forwarded by the Post Office, so if you’ve moved or will be away, you’ll need to submit a Statewide Vote-By-Mail Ballot Request Form with your signature.
And remember: your completed ballot must be received (not just postmarked) by 7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 4, or it doesn’t count. So don’t wait till the last minute — mail it early so the elections office can contact you if there’s a problem with your signature.
More info, and a link to request an absentee ballot, is at www.votemiamidade.gov.

The post ABs are out for November 4 elections — and so is the flood of campaign mail appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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It must be election season in Hialeah because, suddenly, everybody wants to give away tax cuts like they’re pastelitos.
Interim Mayor Jacqueline “Jackie” Garcia-Roves — who is running to keep the job she was handed when former Mayor Esteban Bovo went to D.C. to lobby and be with his wifey — called a press conference at a Hialeah housing complex last month to promise abuelitos a 1% cut in the city’s property tax rate.
It amounts to about $25 a year back in taxpayers’ pockets, just in time for them to maybe remember her fondly at the ballot box in November.
But here’s the kicker: that “gift” to residents would blow a $1.3 million hole in the city’s budget. And if history is any guide, Hialeah doesn’t exactly recover gracefully from these kinds of political sugar highs. Remember Carlos Hernandez’s tax cut in 2013? That one cost $3.2 million, gutted pensions, shut down pools and libraries, forced furloughs, and sent first responders packing. The city is still patching the potholes from that financial disaster.
Read related: René García ditches Hialeah mayoral race — after stirring the political pot
Garcia-Roves insists this time is different. Sure. She’s also promising to absorb Miami-Dade’s water and sewer hikes (to the tune of $12.5 million), scrap the water franchise fee ($3.7 million in lost revenue), and cover rising trash collection costs. In all, her plan would strip $18.3 million from city revenues. She says there’s a $61 million surplus, but the numbers in her own budget only show $49.3 million. Math is apparently as flexible as politics in Hialeah.
The Interim Alcaldesa said at the press conference that she asked all the department directors to slash and burn and bring her a 5% reduction in their budgets. “To show me where they’re going to save, how they can save, and that’s how the money will be replenished.”
Uh-huh.
And just to make sure nobody gets left out of the political piñata, Councilman Jesús Tundidor — who is also running for mayor against Garcia-Roves — has scheduled his own press conference Tuesday to roll out his tax cut plan. Of course he has. Because in Hialeah, no one can resist playing “who can give away more for less?” during campaign season.
Read related: Bryan Calvo becomes first candidate to file for November Hialeah mayor’s race
Tundidor promises nothing less than “the largest property tax reduction in Hialeah’s history,” which sounds more like a campaign slogan than a budget plan. The release says it will deliver “immediate and meaningful relief to residents’ wallets” while still keeping the city’s finances solid. Ladra can’t wait to hear the details of how he squares that circle.
“One percent is enough to buy a cafecito,” Tundidor told Political Cortadito Monday. He said his plan is going to more than double that — and without raiding the reserves — because he has identified “millions and millions” of dollars parked in capital improvement projects that can wait.
“I found some projects that aren’t really that urgent,” Tundidor said. “Cuando las cosas están dura, you kind of put things on hold.”
Tundidor is bringing Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Tomás Regalado along for the show, er, press conference in the lobby at City Hall, 501 Palm Ave., at 1 p.m. Tuesday, like some kind of fiscal padrino to bless the move.
Read related: Hialeah mayor, councilman clash over tax collector election endorsement
Let’s not forget, however, that former councilman and mayoral candidate Bryan Calvo — who bailed last year to run (and lose) in the Republican primary for Miami-Dade tax collector — actually pitched a tax cut of his own at last year’s budget hearing. But Bovo shut him down hard, calling the idea “irresponsible” and nothing more than a politically expedient stunt.
Calvo had tried to sell it as giving residents “a little money back” to offset rising costs. Same as Garcia Roves wants to do this year. Of course, back then, he was running for tax collector.
But hey, election season means short memories and big promises, right?
Meanwhile, the city is still being sued by Miami-Dade over $18 million in unpaid water and sewer bills. But hey, let’s not let lawsuits or fiscal reality get in the way of an election-year gimmick.
As firefighter union president Eric Johnson reminded commissioners (again), it all sounds great in political soundbites, but we’ve been down this road before: cuts now, chaos later. “Is it worth closing parks for our children? Is it worth reducing public safety, where mere seconds could affect the outcome of lives?” he asked.
Good questions. But in Hialeah, politicians are too busy trying to outdo each other’s campaign giveaways to stop and answer.
The post Dueling tax cut proposals in Hialeah means campaign season is in full gear appeared first on Political Cortadito.

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Meanwhile, partisan politics creep into county office
Have you been arrested and actually gone to prison for mortgage fraud? Have you been caught drinking and driving on the job, or cheating taxpayers by running errands on the public dime? No problem! You can apply for a job at the Miami-Dade Elections Department. They won’t care.
Four months after newly-elected Elections Supervisor Alina Garcia took office in November, she hired a new executive secretary: Jenny Nillo, who was fired from the city of Miami Omni Community Redevelopment Agency after she was caught driving a city car to run private errands for former Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla, the CRA chairman at the time, and stopping for cans of beer along the way. How she was not arrested for drinking and driving is a mystery.
But whatever. That’s in the past, Garcia said. So, apparently, is Nillo’s 2017 arrest for mortgage fraud and subsequent conviction and sentence of 36 months.
Garcia did not return calls and texts from Ladra. But she gave a statement to the Herald that said Nillo “has performed her responsibilities with excellence, integrity, and unwavering commitment.”
Surveillance video shots of Jenny Nillo playing hooky from her city of Miami job in 2021.
She really laid it on thick, calling Nillo “a dedicated professional and valued member of our team who has paid her dues to society and has demonstrated through her actions and work ethic that she is an outstanding individual fully committed to public service.
“Ms. Nillo is also a widow who, since the passing of her husband in 2017, has been the sole provider for her family — supporting both her 80-year-old mother and her 19-year-old son,” Garcia said. “Her strength, resilience, and professionalism reflect the values we uphold in our office.”
Really? What about her theft of taxpayer dollars and blatant disregard for the law or even common decency? Does that reflect the values you uphold in your office? Which, by the way, is really our office.
At least now, if Nillo works on a campaign during her work hours — like she did when Renier Diaz de la Portilla ran for county commission — she is still technically working in “elections.”
Read related: Jenny Nillo campaigned for Renier Diaz de la Portilla while on the public job
Nillo is making $45,000 a year, according to Tess Riski, who reported the scoop in The Miami Herald. That’s what she started at when ADLP forced her on the city’s Omni CRA in 2020 as a community liaison. She was making $53,000 when she was fired the next year after Florida Department of Law Enforcement Officers observed her drinking and driving and stopped her so she wouldn’t hurt anybody. But she was only fired from the CRA. Diaz de la Portilla hired her back to his district office, and she worked in the city even after his 2023 arrest in September on charges of bribery and money laundering, which were dropped last year.
Strangely enough, Ladra expected Nillo to be working with the ADLP campaign for Miami mayor. She has worked on all the Diaz de la Portilla campaigns for decades. And when Ladra asked the former commissioner, via text, if she would be joining him at City Hall should he be elected, he said she would. “Are you going to take Jenny with to the mayor’s office with you,” was the question. “Yes. Part of my team,” Diaz de la Portilla said Friday morning.
After reading about her new job, which the Herald reported started March 3, Ladra texted him again on Saturday. “I thought you said Jenny was part of your team.” His answer: “She is.”
That’s concerning because the Miami-Dade Elections Department is the one that is going to tally the votes for the city elections on Nov. 4. There should not be part of anyone’s “team” working there.

But then we have Garcia, a longtime Republican operative who is going to have a very difficult time putting her job before her party. It seems like she is still campaigning from her social media feed, going to events all over the county, mostly with other Republican officials. She was there last week to celebrate the swearing-in of interim Hialeah Mayor Jacqueline Garcia Roves, along with Hialeah’s former mayor and former Miami-Dade Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo and Miami-Dade Commissioner and former state Senator Rene Garcia, who is allegedly running for mayor in the City of Progress, as well as a State Rep. Alex Rizo and a bunch of other electeds.
This is an election year in Hialeah, by the way. How is she going to remain objective? Ladra would be concerned if she was former Council Member Bryan Calvo. Looks like Calvo, who is also running for mayor, was left out of the group shot.
Read related: Meet our new Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia and her storied past
It’s kinda strange to see Garcia, the head of our county election, hobnobbing with electeds — mostly Republicans — in Tallahassee and at local events. It’s kinda strange to see her celebrating Women’s Month with the Republican Party of Miami Dade County, which had invited special guest, former Alaska Governor and one time VP candidate Sarah Palin. It’s kinda weird to see our elections chief in Washington D.C. at an inauguration ball for a president who still insists, to this day, that he won the 2020 election.
Garcia’s social media feeds look like she is still campaigning – and using election events to do so.
In February, members of the Republican Party of Miami-Dade toured the Doral office, where Chief Executive Officer Christina White discussed voter registration, vote-by-mail ballots, and the procedures involved in managing a county-wide election, while Garcia stood near the back of the room with Kevin J. Cooper, the newly elected Chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party, like they were conspiring or something.
Ladra has not seen photos posted of a tour for the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.

This Jenny Nillo hire has to be a favor for somebody, right? Because a fair, competitive process in this economy would have drawn better candidates, for sure. But Nillo is a DLP loyalist lackey, a member of “my team,” as he says. And Garcia is self-proclaimed “Joe Carollo girl.” She worked with the Miami commissioner before she ran for the state senate before she ran for elections chief. Carollo and Diaz de la Portilla are both allegedly running for mayor of Miami against each other in another election this year that Garcia will oversee.
So, this favor of a hire only makes sense if what las malas lenguas say is true about a deal struck by Carollo and Diaz de la Portilla, for the latter to switch to the county commission District 5 race if, indeed, Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins runs for mayor, after all.
Read related: Alex Diaz de la Portilla is investigated on ghost city employee at Omni CRA
That’s one hypothesis, anyway.
Meanwhile, Ladra has some questions.
Does this mean Nillo, who worked at the county a long time ago, gets a third public pension?
Will she get to handle ballots in the Miami election?
What’s in the green gift bags that the Republican Party guests got at the tour?
Who is Garcia going to hire next? Perhaps former Florida Sen. Frank Artiles, who she also used to work for?
Artiles is appealing his November conviction and sentence — 60 days in jail and five years probation — in an election conspiracy case after orchestrating the sham candidate that thwarted the 2020 state senate race in District 37, tilting it for Republican Ileana Garcia and against Democrat incumbent Jose Javier Rodriguez.
So, he has election experience.
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There are live elections today in four of Miami-Dade’s biggest cities: Miami, Hialeah, Miami Beach and Homestead. Some offer a little more drama than others.

In Miami, there are two seats up for grabs. Commissioner Manolo Reyes is also on the ballot but he is pretty much in like Flint. No muss, no fuss.

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Hialeah Councilman Carl Zogby, the former police department spokesman, won re-election outright in a three-way Group 5 race Tuesday, with 57% of the vote. Mayra Jimenez got 27% and Salvador Blanco got 16%.

But the other two council races, the open seats which had five and six candidates vying, are headed into a runoff after nobody got 50% plus one by the end of the Election Day Nov. 2. And in less than two weeks, the city will have two more fresh, new council members that, depending on who wins, could tilt power one way or another.

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