Developing story: The Miami-Dade Elections Department has rejected thousands of petitions collected by the Accountable Coral Gables group to put three questions on the November ballot.
The political action committee, chaired by Mayor Vince Lago‘s ally and former candidate Alex Bucelo, turned in more than 14,000 petitions for the three questions — one to change the election date to November, another to require a public vote approval of raises for electeds and a third to require a 4/5th vote on any non-emergency expenditure of reservers. Less than 1,100 were certified as valid.
That means that close to 13,000 petitions were rejected for one reason or another. And that spells trouble for the effort, which has until the end of July to reach their goals.
Read related: Coral Gables group submits petitions for referendum on electeds’ salaries
According to the Miami-Dade Elections Department, the breakdown is as follows:
3,364 signed petitions delivered on the election date question; 413 were valid; 3,127 were rejected. Of those, three were duplicates
5,437 signed petitions on the public approval for compensation; 425 were valid; 5,011 were rejected; 16 were duplicates
5,408 signed petitions on the use of reserves were delivered; 413 were certified; 4.995 were rejected; 15 were duplicates
This is a huge setback to the effort, which is one of Lago’s current obsessions (the other being Commissioner Melissa Castro).
Read related: New Coral Gables PAC seeks to change election date and commission powers
This is a developing story and more details will be added as it is reported.
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