It's Election Day, Voters Head To The Polls In Miami-Dade
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - It's election day for thousands of voters in Miami-Dade.
Two commission seats will be decided in the city of Miami and three commission seats in the city of Miami Beach.
In Hialeah, voters will cast ballots on four council member seats.
Homestead voters will elect a mayor and two city council members.
Susan Preville dropped her ballot off in person at Miami-Dade's election headquarters.
"Everybody impacts your life, everybody's vote counts, everybody's perspective counts, we just have to make things better if we have any type of power at all," she said.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez was among those out on Election Day, hoping to set the example.
"My message is simple, go out and vote, It's important that you go out and express yourself. Our government is here to serve you and we can't serve unless we have good people who care about our city and care about our future," he said.
Despite the importance of an election, and giving every one voice, turnout expected to be in the low teens, tracking between eight to 14 percent.
"We are always telling our voters that the local elections are actually even more important to you than even the federal elections so you really want to pay attention," said Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Christina White.
White said while focusing on Tuesday's election, they are also focusing on being ready for the next major election which is just months away, a presidential primary in March.
Turnout is expected to be record-setting almost exactly one year from now for the presidential election in 2020
White said election security is a high priority. Since 2016, more than $2 million has been spent on upgrades, training poll workers, software updates, and firewalls. One good thing is that Miami-Dade relies on old fashioned paper ballots.
"With the backup paper rolls that we have for our voter registration database, as well as the paper ballot, we actually have a record of everything that happens here in Miami-Dade," said White.
On Tuesday, the polls will be open until 7 p.m.
There are no races in Broward County.
