Court Rejects Marcelo Llorente's Bid to Reinstate Sunday Polling in Miami

A Miami judge on Friday rejected a candidate's bid to reinstate Sunday's early voting in the Miami-Dade special election.

The county government had canceled the Sunday voting hours earlier in the week, ostensibly because of state legislation curtailing early voting periods.

But, noting that Gov. Rick Scott had not signed the bill at the time of the cancellation, mayoral candidate Marcelo Llorente sued the county. Circuit Court Judge Barbara Areces, after a day of deliberation, threw out Llorente's complaint Friday afternoon.

Llorente called Areces' ruling "outrageous."

"It signals that the rulescan be changed at the eleventh hour of an election. It's unfortunate thatthe rights of voters were trampled by Miami-Dade county officials.Miami-Dade county residents should be troubled by the fact that its government choseto unilaterally disenfranchise voters bycanceling Sunday's vote rather than challenge the provision of HB 1355," Llorente said.

On Thursday, Llorente had called on county commissioners to "immediately reverse their position and join us in preserving what was duly advertised to the voters as the last day of early voting."

Commissioners did not do so, and Scott later signed the election bill into law.

The special election to fill the Miami-Dade mayor's position, along with balloting on several charter-reform measures and County Commission seats, is Tuesday.