The mayor of Miami-Dade took responsibility for temporarily shutting down the headquarters of the Miami-Dade Elections Department on Sunday afternoon after elections workers were overwhelmed by the number of voters who showed up to cast absentee ballots in-person.
Carlos Gimenez said it was Deputy Mayor Alina Hudak who approved Elections Supervisor Penelope Townsley’s request to open the election department’s headquarters so voters could request and cast absentee ballots. Their decision went against his directive, the Republican told the Miami-Herald. He said he was not aware of the plan for extra hours until his daughter-in-law informed him about it on Sunday and said was “embarrassed” by the mix up. While he initially shut down the elections department headquarters, Gimenez ultimately decided it was best to reopen the location.
“I’m going to have to deal with this internally,” Gimenez said. “I’m not saying somebody’s going to be lose their job, but somebody made a poor error in judgment that’s not really helping the community.”
