Town clerk: turnout drops sharply from Nov. general to mayoral runoff; committee weighs moving runoff away from Thanksgiving

Madame Clerk Gina told the Charter Revision Committee that available election statistics show a steep drop in turnout between the November general election and the mayoral runoff: approximately 15,700 ballots in the Nov. 5, 2024 mayoral race and 3,994 ballots in the Nov. 26, 2024 runoff. Gina also provided the town's registered‑voter count as of Nov. 26, 2024: 21,093.

Commissioners said these figures strengthen arguments to reconsider the timing of runoffs. Several members suggested moving any runoff from the week of Thanksgiving to early December to avoid holiday conflict and improve turnout. Another option discussed was holding a primary that decides the election when more than two candidates run, with any necessary runoff consolidated into the November general election.

Commission Member Abad and others noted the difficulty of extracting August primary turnout specifically for Miami Lakes from county records; clerk staff said they had submitted a public records request to the elections department and were awaiting precinct‑level data to compute Miami Lakes ballots cast in August. Staff explained the manual method used to approximate primary turnout (adding partisan totals precinct by precinct for a high profile race), but cautioned this can undercount voters who left specific contests blank or were unaffiliated.

The committee did not adopt a change tonight; commissioners asked staff to continue compiling precinct data and to include turnout figures in the consolidated materials for upcoming meetings.