Commissioners Stage Apparent Walkout Over Election Plan
MIAMI, 5:08 p.m. EDT October 11, 2002 - Six Cuban-American members of the Miami-Dade County Commission left the commission chambers in unison Thursday, forestalling a vote on a plan that would bring in outside monitors for the Nov. 5 election.
The plan was meant to prevent a repeat of the Sept. 10 primary disaster in which Miami-Dade and Broward counties saw near chaos at the polls, with polls opening late, workers unable to turn on the electronic voting machines, and major discrepancies between voter registration and the final vote count.
Commissioners who support the monitors had considered bringing in the foundation led by former President Jimmy Carter, which often travels to troubled countries to ensure legitimate elections, but several Cuban-American commissioners reportedly balked at the idea, both because of Carter's recent trip to Cuba and his support for ending the embargo, and because they felt his presence would stigmatize the county as akin to a third-world nation.
The plan up for vote on Thursday would involve contracting with the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Democracy, a nonpartisan group. To vote on the plan, the 13-member commission needed a quorum of seven members present. The walkout prevented the quorum, therefore, stalling the vote. In addition to the six who walked out Thursday, a seventh commissioner, former Chairwoman Gwen Margolis, was ceremonially retired at the previous meeting and was absent.
The commissioners walking out Thursday were Javier Souto, Bruno Barreiro, Rebeca Sosa, Joe Martinez, Jose "Pepe" Cancio and Natacha Seijas. All are on record as opposing the monitors, with most citing the plan's $120,000 cost as the reason. The center had agreed to cut its price to $92,000 after talks with county officials, but the six commissioners remaining at the meeting were unable to accept or reject the proposal without a seventh member present.
And recent comments by many of those who left the meeting, including comments on Spanish-language radio, suggest sensitivity over the county's image is the central issue.
"We're not Haiti, we're not Nicaragua, we're not Russia, and I refuse to go near any of those feelings. Because it was a horrible feeling they had when they were not free, and I don't want to feel that way," Seijas said on Tuesday.
The walkout has exposed what some have long seen as deep divisions between the Cuban-American community and members of the African-American community. Many activists and community leaders have expressed concern about what they believe was widespread disenfranchisement of black voters in recent elections. In both the 2000 presidential and 2002 primary elections, most of the problems at the polls took place in precincts with African-American majorities.
Because of a scheduling glitch, many community activists had sat through several hours of a zoning meeting to await discussion of the monitors. After the walkout, some expressed shock and disappointment.
"This is third-world politics," said Max Rameau of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition. "You have a government with questions about its legitimacy. And instead of trying to alleviate those questions, they're reinforcing those questions. This is encouraging people not to vote."
Miami-Dade NAACP President Brad Brown also denounced the walkout. "Obviously, people left because it was a way of achieving a goal of defeating the observers, which is something the commission was on record supporting," he said.
The walkout had echoes of 1996, when six commissioners walked out during a ceremony to honor civil-rights leader Andrew Young. Five of the commissioners who walked out in 1996 denied deliberately snubbing Young, but one, Souto, acknowledged walking out in protest over Young's comments about Fidel Castro.
Reporters from the Miami Herald found some of the commissioners in their offices right after the walkout, and they denied any coordinated action, which would violate the state's open-government laws.
"If people talked about this beforehand, it would be a violation of the Sunshine Law, and I don't do that," said Seijas, insisting the move was spontaneous. "Everybody walking out at the same time is not a violation of the Sunshine Law."
Seijas said she had an appointment and could not stay for the debate, though she declined to say what kind of an appointment it was.
Martinez said he left the meeting to appear on Radio Mambi (740 AM.) "I didn't talk to anybody about this," he told the Herald. "All I know is I gotta go and I gotta go."
But other commissioners were skeptical. "It looks like an exodus to me," said Commissioner Betty Ferguson. "I think it's a deliberate walkout, and I feel insulted."
The proposal could be resurrected at a special meeting Tuesday. The remaining commissioners -- Chairman Jimmy Morales, Barbara Carey-Shuler, Dorrin Rolle, Dennis Moss, Katy Sorenson and Ferguson -- agreed to seek a seventh signature from Margolis, who remains in office until incoming Rep. Sally Heyman is sworn in. If all seven commissioners sign a "signature item" favoring it, the monitoring plan can be considered at Tuesday's meeting.
The Miami Herald contributed to this report.
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