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Saturday Last Day For Early Voting In Miami-Dade Election

MIAMI (CBS4)- If you didn't vote Saturday for the special mayoral election in Miami-Dade county, you'll have to visit your precinct polling place Tuesday to take part. A Miami-Dade judge on Friday backed the county elections department's decision to cancel a day of early voting for Tuesday's special election, so Saturday's session was the last for this election.

Circuit Judge Barbara Areces dismissed a lawsuit filed by county mayoral candidate Marcelo Llorente, who argued the elections department acted unconstitutionally when it did away with early voting scheduled for Sunday.

Lester Sola, the Miami-Dade supervisor of elections, changed the schedule earlier this week to comply with a new elections law Gov. Rick Scott signed on Thursday. The law requires early voting to end three days before Election Day.

To make up for the lost time, the county doubled early voting hours on Saturday, and there were lines in some locations that had barely seen voters earlier in the early voting period. By the time Saturday's totals are county; it's estimated about 35 thousand people will have voted early, about half the number who voted in the recall election that made this vote necessary.

Norman Braman visited an early voting location at 75st and Collins Avenue in Miami Beach Saturday to submit his vote. Braman, a billionaire businessman, was one of the driving forces behind the recall election. Braman declined to share his choice for mayor, but said all three front-running candidates had promised Charter Reform will be the first order of business, one of Braman's key points for supporting any candidate.

Llorente, a former state representative and a lawyer, said he plans to have campaign workers at closed early voting sites on Sunday, collecting signed affidavits from any voters who show up expecting to cast ballots.

Those affidavits could later be used if Llorente's campaign decides to challenge the election results.

For more information on the Special Election, click here.

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