ELECTION RESULTS 2023

We want to thank the 1,880 Miami Springs residents that came out to vote during this election.  Every vote mattered.  One council seat was separated by just 20 votes, folks.    In other words, your vote really did make a difference.  More on that in just a moment.

We also want to thank all the candidates that ran for office.  You gave the Miami Springs residents choices.  In a representative form of government, we need quality people to come out and run for office.  We want to thank all the candidates for their dedication to our community.  We saw lots of candidates going door to door and working for every vote.  It takes a lot of energy and commitment to run.  And for that we are grateful to all of you.

WHO WON?

Join us in congratulating Jacky Bravo, Victor Vazquez, and Jorge Santin on their respective wins tonight.  Let’s go through each Council seat and review the results:

GROUP I – ELECTION RESULTS:

We expected the three way race for City Council Group I to be a lot tighter.  We had three candidates splitting the vote with Orlando Lamas, MaryJo Mejia Ramos, and Jorge Santin.  Anytime that happens, the vote can go in unexpected ways.

Nevertheless, Santin came out with a decisive win.  Santin took in 54% of the votes.  He edged out Orlando Lamas (who filled our mailboxes with lots of campaign flyers) by a margin of 380 votes.  MaryJo Mejia Ramos was an absolute sweetheart of a candidate, but was only able to pull in 248 votes or 13% of the overall vote.

As you can see in the chart above, Santin had a slight edge in the Vote by Mail results with 318 votes compared to Lamas’ 254 votes and MaryJo’s 126 votes.  Santin continued his edge with the early votes with 156 early votes compared to Lamas’ 88 early votes and MaryJo’s 31 early votes.  But on election day, Santin truly shined with a whopping 512 votes or nearly twice as many as Lamas who brought in 264 votes and MaryJo who pulled 91 votes.  In total, Santin received 986 votes or 54% of the total.

GROUP II – ELECTION RESULTS:

Councilwoman Jacky Bravo retained her seat with 992 total votes or 54% of the total.  Jennifer Graham did well in her first ever political campaign with 829 votes or 46% of the votes.  It’s tough to unseat a popular incumbent and Jennifer should hold her head up high.  Graham did well in the vote by mail falling behind Bravo by just 36 votes.  But Bravo was dominant in early voting with 58 more votes and on election day Bravo increased her lead by an additional 69 vote margin.  Ultimately Councilwoman Bravo won by 163 votes.

GROUP IV – ELECTION RESULTS:

Folks, if you don’t think that every vote matters, then you need to talk to Victor Vazquez and Tom Hutchings.  The votes are separated by just 20 votes!  Yeah.  Just 20 votes separate the two.  That’s just 1% of the total votes that separated the two.

Former Miami Springs Councilman, Victor Vazquez, just barely edged out Tom Hutchings.  Vazquez’ edge came from the vote by mail.  Victor received 391 votes by mail compared to Tom Hutchings’ 311 votes.  That gave Victor an 80 vote edge.  However, Tom Hutchings did a better job getting people to the polls in person.  Tom received 150 early in person votes compared to Vazquez’ 116 early in person votes.  That was 34 vote edge for Hutchings.  On election day, Hutchings again edged out Vazquez.  In this case, Hutchings took in 441 votes compared to Vazquez’ 415 votes.  That gave Hutchings on election day edge of 26 votes.

Unfortunately for Hutchings, the 26 vote edge he had on election day and the 34 vote edge he had from early voting was not enough to overcome Vazquez’ 80 vote advantage from the mail in votes.  At the end of the day, just 20 votes separated Hutchings from Vazquez’ victory.

Kudos to Vazquez.  His experience running for Miami Springs City Council and running for Miami-Dade County Commission gave him the campaign experience to go out and solicit for the mail in vote early.  Ultimately, that campaign experience gave Victor the victory.

We also need to give credit to Tom Hutchings who put in one heckuva fight.  This is the closest Miami Springs election that we can recall.

INTRODUCING YOUR NEW CITY COUNCIL:

Here’s your new Miami Springs City Council.  From left to right:  Councilman elect Jorge Santin (seat I), Councilwoman Jacky Bravo (seat II), Mayor Maria Mitchell, Councilman Walter Fajet (seat III), and Councilman elect Victor Vazquez.  Congratulations to all of you.  The ent

WHAT ABOUT THE REFERENDUMS ?:

I don’t know anyone who went to the polls to vote specifically for these referendums.  Most of the voters came out to vote for candidates.  Nevertheless, the charter amendments must go to the voters to get approved.

CANDIDATE QUALIFYING PERIOD

On Referendum 1 which would reduce the qualifying period to run for City Council from 60 days to 10 days was rejected.  The overwhelming majority of voters decided to go against this measure and just leave it the way it has been.  1188 residents or 66% of the voters rejected this referendum.

PARTIAL TERMS OF OFFICE

The City Council has term limits which only allow a councilperson to serve a maximum of 4 consecutive terms.  Each term lasts two years, but if someone is appointed or elected to fill a vacancy, that partial term (even if it was just one day) is considered a full term.

Voters overwhelmingly approved Referendum 2 by 63% of Springs voters or 1,092 residents supporting the measure.  We generally agree with the referendum, but wished it had excluded “individuals appointed.”

PROCESS FOR FILLING VACANCIES

This poorly worded referendum is basically trying to fix a logistical problem.  The City of Miami Springs is supposed to hold a special election to fill a vacancy if someone resigns with 120 days or more left before the next election.  However, the State of Florida and the County Elections department requires 90 day notice to hold an election.  So this creates a logistical nightmare.  By extending this period to 180 days, it allows the City Council to appoint or fill vacancies if a term is vacated with less than 180 days.  If the term is vacated with greater than 180 days, then a special election will be held.

We generally prefer elections to appointments, however, this is a pragmatic fix to a logistical problem facing the city.

This referendum did not garner overwhelming support, but did pass with 52% of voters supporting it.

SPECIAL ELECTIONS FOR VACANCIES

This referendum got the most support with 73% of the votes.  This fixes a problem we had with recent council resignations and allows the city to conduct a special election to fill a vacancy during a countywide primary or general election.

Non-Substantive Technical Charter Updates

Like we said, who doesn’t want to remove “obsolete” provisions of the Charter?  Well, Miami Springs voters supported this referendum with 61% of the votes.  We’ll have to keep a close eye to to see what “non-substantive” changes come from the city in the near future.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Folks, whether you’re happy with the results or unhappy with the results, we have a representative form of government.  Voters were able to peacefully exercise their right to vote today.  Their votes were counted and the majority wins.

We want to thank the poll workers and everyone from Miami-Dade County’s Elections department for running a clean and efficient election.  We were able to share the poll results within an hour of the polls closing.  Great job!

Voter turnout was at 21% with 1,880 ballots counted out of 8,973 registered voters in Miami Springs.  If you don’t think your vote would have mattered, go see Victor Vazquez and/or Tom Hutchings and ask them what they think.

Again, thanks to all the candidates who dedicated themselves to our democratic process.  And thank you to all the residents who voted this election cycle.  Your vote really did matter.

God bless you all and God bless Miami Springs.