Miami-Dade’s elected supervisor of elections urges registration, explains vote-by-mail and paper-ballot checks

Elena Garcia, Miami-Dade County’s first elected supervisor of elections, attended the Opa-locka roundtable to encourage voter registration and explain how the county conducts and safeguards elections.

Garcia said the county registers voters as young as 16 (they become eligible to vote at 18) and that her office brought voter-registration forms and vote-by-mail applications to the event. She said state rules require voters who use vote-by-mail to reapply after each general election and urged residents to complete vote-by-mail applications if they wish to continue receiving ballots by mail.

Garcia described Miami-Dade’s voting system as paper-based with machine tabulation. "We vote by paper," she said, adding that the county uses two separate counting systems so officials can cross-check results. She described three voting methods available to residents: vote-by-mail, early voting and election-day in-person voting.

She said the office has run outreach campaigns in partnership with Miami-Dade Public Schools social-studies teachers to register students (registration is allowed at 16) and that the office aims to increase turnout in municipal elections, which she described as consequential for daily services.

Garcia left printed materials and encouraged organizations that want county staff to come for outreach events to take materials from the table at the event.