{"id":365755,"date":"2026-08-08T00:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365755\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T00:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T00:08:10","slug":"expert-explains-miami-voters-florida-primary-ballot-referendum-question-on-city-elections-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365755\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert explains Miami voters\u2019 Florida primary ballot referendum question on city elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text text--small text--normal text--primary\">Published:\u00a0August 7, 2026 at 7:24 PM<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI \u2014 Miami voters have a decision to make on Aug. 18 that is limited to elections in the city. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.miamidade.gov\/elections\/library\/sample-ballots\/2026-08-18-sample-ballot-miami-special.pdf\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.miamidade.gov\/elections\/library\/sample-ballots\/2026-08-18-sample-ballot-miami-special.pdf\">Florida primary ballot<\/a> includes Miami Referendum 1: \u201cCharter Amendment to Move the City Elections from Odd-Numbered to Even-Numbered Years.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The question for voters: \u201cShall the City Charter be amended to change the General and Runoff Elections from odd-numbered years to evennumbered years commencing in the years 2034 and 2036, and every four years thereafter, so the General Election is concurrent with any statewide or countywide election; modify the qualification period and clarify that the terms of office of those elected in the years 2031 and 2033 shall be reduced to 3 years due to said change?\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hcas.nova.edu\/people\/charles-l-zelden.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/hcas.nova.edu\/people\/charles-l-zelden.html\">Charles Zelden<\/a> is a political science professor at Nova Southeastern University\u2019s Halmos College of Arts and Sciences. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThe people who run the elections for the parties have decided that they are better off if they bring in all the voters as opposed to some of the voters,\u201d Zelden said about the reason behind the referendum. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">A majority is required to adopt the measure. Zelden said the odd-year elections could favor a candidate. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cAn odd year election allows you to be the big dog, the one that everyone is focused on,\u201d Zelden said. \u201cBut, only a small percentage of the voters will be actually focusing.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Zelden said he suspects the majority of voters will vote in favor of even-year elections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cVoters will say, \u2018Well, that makes sense! Why aren\u2019t we voting that way already,\u2019\u201d Zelden said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Jeff  Derderian \" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/author-service-images-prod-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/MSLA5GVTO5AXZLY4CC5BTN7M.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Jeff Derderian <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">Jeff Derderian is an Emmy Award-winning reporter with more than two decades of experience uncovering the truth and holding the powerful accountable. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Andrea Torres\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/author-service-images-sandbox-us-east-1.publishing.aws.arc.pub\/wplginc\/83a8effa-fc87-4940-96.jpeg\"  width=\"100\" height=\"100\"\/>Andrea Torres<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-author-bio__author-description\">The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013. She wrote for the Miami Herald for more than 9 years and won a Green Eyeshade Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published:\u00a0August 7, 2026 at 7:24 PM MIAMI \u2014 Miami voters have a decision to make on Aug. 18&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-365755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}