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Election concerns being addressed

Some Miami Lakes activists have called on the county to investigate whether there were irregularities in voting on Oct. 5 in which four incumbents returned to office with slim majorities.

BY MONICA HATCHER   Miami Herald   17 October 2004

Razor-thin victory margins for incumbents in Miami Lakes elections on Oct. 5 have prompted some activists to allege voting irregularities might have influenced the outcomes.

Mirtha Mendez, accompanied by several residents and defeated council candidate Diane Dominguez, presented a list of possible irregularities at a meeting of the Miami-Dade County Governmental Operations and Environment Committee on Tuesday.

The committee instructed the Elections Department to respond to the concerns and report to the County Commission by Oct. 26.

The grievances cited by Mendez include the mailing, delivery and procedures by which absentee ballots were counted. Mendez claims potentially hundreds of voters had requested absentee ballots and didn't get them until the day of the election or the day after.

She also wants an investigation into a power outage at Precinct 305, located at the Miami Lakes Branch Library, 6699 Windmill Gate Rd., and also whether the town gave proper notice to residents when the election was taking place.

Mendez said she knew of at least one voter who experienced problems with the voting machine during the power outage; although, the i-Votronic machines have battery backups in case of electrical problems. She also said results at the precinct were tallied by flashlight.

Mendez, who supported the four challengers, said she wasn't trying to get the results overturned.

''The most prized right that people have is to vote,'' Mendez said Friday. ``To think a lot of people voted and their votes didn't count is very upsetting.''

Dominguez, whose race against Robert Alonso was decided by 52 votes, wouldn't say Friday whether she thought she would have won if everything had run smoothly.

''I'm anxious to see the report from the elections department,'' she said.

Alonso said he had only heard rumors about some of the problems but was unconcerned about the effect on the election outcome.

''Whatever irregularities might have been there, it would have been for both sides,'' Alonso said Friday.

The election department is reviewing the complaints.

''We're going through their concerns point by point,'' election department spokesman Seth Kaplan said Friday. ``Any time we hear of any concerns, we absolutely take them seriously. That's certainly the case with these as well.''

Alex Gonzalez, who lost to Mayor Wayne Slaton, said he wasn't legally contesting the results but supported Mendez's request for an investigation.

''I just want to make sure that anyone who intended to vote and wanted to vote had his or her vote counted,'' Gonzalez said Friday.

The deadline to file a lawsuit contesting the election was Friday 10 days after the election.

Slaton agreed with Gonzalez, saying the election department should address all concerns but thought the county had done a good job overall of running the elections.

''I'm sure the commissioners want to be very sure that their election department is doing a very good job for all the residents in the county, as well as the residents of Miami Lakes,'' Slaton said Friday.

Roughly 28 percent of Miami Lakes' 13,646 registered voters went to the polls.

Slaton defeated Gonzalez 51.76 percent to 48.26 percent; Vice-Mayor Alonso defeated Dominguez 50.7 percent to 49.30 percent; Peter Thomson defeated Sean Schwinghammer 51.51 percent to 48.49 percent; and, Mary Collins beat David Perez 52.43 percent to 47.57 percent.

The winners were sworn into office for another four years during a council meeting Tuesday night. The council voted 4-3 to reelect Alonso to another one-year term.



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