This Tuesday, Nov. 4, voters in several cities across South Florida will head to the polls to cast their ballots in local races.

Residents will be voting for mayor in Hialeah, Miami and Miami Beach, along with new commissioners or city council members in those cities. In Homestead, council seats including for vice mayor are up for grabs, while in Surfside, residents will decide on four referendums.

Beyond the local races, voters in Miami will find four referendums on the ballot, each proposing changes to the city’s charter.

Hialeah

Hialeah, with over 250,000 residents, will be choosing its next mayor and five of its six city council members.

The mayoral race

After Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo resigned in April, Jacqueline Garcia-Roves, who was then-president of the City Council, assumed the role of interim mayor, becoming the first woman to hold that position in the city.

She now faces a race against five other candidates.

The city of Hialeah is poised to elect its new leader next Tuesday. Five candidates are vying for the top job, including the city’s interim mayor and a current city council member. NBC6’s Lorena Inclan reports

City council races

The city does not use electoral districts, allowing candidates to strategically run for whichever seat they prefer. The candidates range in age from 20 to 87, and many have local experience as employees or business owners.

Seat 1 is not up for election in this cycle. See the candidates here.

Miami Beach

In Miami Beach, incumbent Steve Meiner and outgoing City Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez are running for mayor. The race will be settled on Election Night because there are only two candidates and a simple majority is needed to win.

Miami

The City of Miami is preparing for one of the most competitive elections in more than two decades, with a total of 13 candidates running for mayor and 11 candidates for city commissioner.

The leading candidates for mayor participated in a televised debate on NBC6 and our digital platforms. The event was hosted by the Biscayne Neighborhoods Association. Joe Carollo, a current Miami city commissioner, also met the threshold within the margin of error and was invited to participate in the debate, but he did not commit to attending before the deadline set by the association.

See the candidates here.

Referendums

Referendum 1: Proposes creating a citizen commission responsible for reviewing the City Charter within the year following each census, which occurs every ten years.

Referendum 2: Asks whether the city should be allowed, by a four-fifths vote, to sell or lease non-waterfront City-owned property when fewer than three proposals are received after public notice, provided that other safeguards, including fair market value and voter approval for waterfront property, remain in effect.

Referendum 3: Seeks to prohibit gerrymandering and establish a Citizens’ Redistricting Committee to oversee the process.

Referendum 4: Proposes setting lifetime term limits for elected officials, with retroactive application. So officials would be able to serve two four-year terms in a role, excluding times when they are elected to fill a vacancy.

For each of the four questions, voters must respond with a “Yes” or “No.” A simple majority is needed for a referendum to pass.

Official Resources