Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia watches Engelbert Asiatico loads a cart full of vote-by-mail ballots onto a waiting USPS truck in the loading bay at the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Office in Doral, Florida, on Thursday, March 19, 2026. The ballots will be delivered to voters for the upcoming Coral Gables election.
PHOTO BY AL DIAZ
adiaz@miamiherald.com
Over 37,000 ballots were mailed out to registered voters in Coral Gables this week ahead of the city’s first-ever mail-only ballot election.
Mail-only ballot elections are a cheaper, though slightly uncommon, alternative for cities when no candidates are on the ballot, like in the case of the upcoming April 21 election in the City Beautiful, according to Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia. The last time Miami-Dade saw a mail-only ballot election was in 2023 in the village of Pinecrest, according to the Elections Department.
“It’s very exciting to see democracy at work,” Garcia told the Miami Herald as she and Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago watched ballots roll into a USPS truck Thursday, getting ready to be shipped out to voters.
“It’s a great opportunity to not only save residents money but to ensure our democracy continues to be at the forefront of every municipality in Miami-Dade County,” Lago added.
In this election, Gables voters will weigh in on eight referendums, including whether elections should be moved from April in odd-numbered years to November of even years. Lago said the city decided to host the vote-by-mail-only election so that if voters do decide to move elections to November, his term and the other commissioners’ terms will be reduced instead of extended.
There are no early voting or physical polling sites this time around. Voters need to mail back their ballots, or drop it off in person at the Elections Department’s Doral headquarters at 2700 NW 87th Ave., before the 7 p.m., April 21 Election Day deadline.
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“Voting by mail in Miami-Dade and throughout Florida is safe and secure,” Garcia said Thursday during a news conference inside the elections warehouse, where ballots are shipped out to voters and, later, counted. “In fact, we are considered a national model for integrity and success. The Coral Gables mail ballot election is a safe, secure, convenient and cost-effective alternative requested by the city.”
Take a look at the process:
Carts full of vote-by-mail ballots are loaded onto a USPS truck at the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Office in Doral, Florida, on Thursday, March 19, 2026. The ballots will be delivered to voters for the upcoming city of Coral Gables election. PHOTO BY AL DIAZ adiaz@miamiherald.com 
Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia listens as Coral Gables Mayor Vince C. Lago speaks to reporters after vote-by-mail ballots were loaded onto a USPS truck at the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Office in Doral, Florida, on Thursday, March 19, 2026. The ballots will be delivered to voters by mail for the upcoming April 21 Coral Gables election. PHOTO BY AL DIAZ adiaz@miamiherald.com 
Engelbert Asiatico and fellow employees prepare to load carts full of vote-by-mail ballots onto a waiting USPS truck in the loading bay at the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Office in Doral, Florida, on Thursday, March 19, 2026. PHOTO BY AL DIAZ adiaz@miamiherald.com
Miami Herald
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.
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