All the votes are in! Registered Voters: 33,002; Ballots Counted: 6,903; Voter Turnout: 20.92%
Congratulations to Ariel Fernandez who is elected Commissioner in Group IV for a four-year term. Let the fireworks begin?
Ivette O’Doski led the pack in Group IV, but with 47.26% that is not quite enough to prevent a run-off election against Melissa Castro who–despite having a much smaller campaign budget–managed to get 39.43% of the vote (that’s just under 8% less than O’Doski). There will be a runoff between the two on Tuesday, April 25, 2023. So either way, there will be a second woman on the five-person Commission.
Here’s the voting info from the City’s web page.
- Coral Gables General Biennial Runoff Election Polling Place List
- Voter Registration Due (Runoff Election Only): Monday, March 27 (Register online) [Yes, it does seem weird to have the deadline fall before we knew we’d need a runoff.]
- Request for Vote-By-Mail Ballot Due (Runoff Election Only): Saturday, April 15 (Request a VMB ballot online) [That’s in 4 days, folks!]
- Runoff Election (Early Voting/Mail-in Ballot Dropoff): Saturday, April 22, and Sunday, April 23 | 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. | War Memorial Youth Center, 405 University Drive
Notably, in Group IV, Jackson Rip Holmes was leading Sean McGrover by a vote just before the last tranche of vote-by-mail ballots got counted. That would have been something.
Overall, I think these results are something of a rebuke for the idea of a developer-financed slate as organized by Mayor Lago–and for the politically ambitious Mayor himself. Although if O’Doski wins the runoff, I guess it will be fairer to call it a partial rebuke?
