Politics
Alina Garcia rejects call by Miami Dems to remove her from Canvassing Board after pro-Amendment 3 presser
Three days after Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia participated in a Republicans-only news conference supporting Amendment 3, the Miami-Dade Democratic Party is demanding she recuse herself from the county Canvassing Board.
Her answer, in short: No.
On Monday, Garcia joined Miami-Dade Tax Collector Dariel Fernandez, Property Appraiser Tomás Regalado and other notable GOP officials at Versailles in Miami. Their joint message: Despite warnings from law enforcement groups, local governments and several chambers of commerce, people should feel secure in voting for Amendment 3, which would significantly hike homestead exemptions on property taxes if voters approve it next month.
Garcia, who said there “have been many lies said” about the proposal, made clear she was appearing in her personal capacity, not as an elected official meant to serve all voters regardless of party leanings.
But many voters may now doubt that Garcia will tally votes without bias as part of the Miami-Dade Canvassing Board, which tests voting equipment, reviews ballots and certifies official election results, according to Laura Kelley, Chair of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
“The job of our Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections is to administer our elections in a completely non-partisan way; that means that at every stage of the elections process, their own political opinions are never allowed to call into question their judgment or their ability to center the voices, or the will, of the voters,” Kelley said.
“While Ms. Garcia is entitled to her own opinions on politics, expressing them publicly when she’s in a position of trust over deciding which ballots can, and which can’t be counted calls into question the impartiality she needs to exhibit while serving on such a powerful board. We are therefore asking her to recuse herself from the Canvassing Board, and allow an additional, impartial voice to take her place.”
That’s not going to happen, Garcia told Florida Politics.
“Of course not,” she said when asked whether she would recuse herself. “She only wants this because she’s against the amendment. If she weren’t against it, she wouldn’t say that.”
Garcia noted that while it may be framed that way — no doubt helped by the overwhelmingly Republican backing the measure’s received since GOP lawmakers pushed its authorizing bill through during a June Special Session — Amendment 3 isn’t inherently partisan.
“They are making it into a partisan issue, but everybody pays taxes — Republicans, Democrats, independents. This has got nothing to do with party,” she said. “Legally, I have all the right in the world to stay on the Canvassing Board because everyone on that Canvassing Board has an opinion, right?”
This is the second time Kelley has lodged accusations of partisan meddling against Garcia, a longtime Republican political operative who served in the House before winning her current post in 2024.
Last year, citing Garcia’s prior equivocation about who won the 2020 Presidential Election, Kelley called her an “election denier” and questioned whether Garcia’s Office followed proper protocols before purging roughly 210,000 Democrats and independents from the county’s active voter rolls.
Kelley said Garcia’s comments about Amendment 3 this week were “unprecedented” for a Miami-Dade Supervisor — an accurate assessment, largely because until 2024, the county’s elections chief was an appointee who answered to the Mayor and was not known for participating in partisan-led news conferences.
After Kelley’s 2025 accusation against Garcia, two Democrat-aligned consultants — Matt Isbell of Tallahassee, who is known for constructing data-driven political maps, and Miami political strategist Vanessa Brito — scoffed on X at the suggestion that malfeasance contributed to the party’s losses.
Isbell called it a “fake scandal.”
“The party split here is driven (by) poor Democratic turnout in past years (and) that there are far more Democrats who haven’t voted in years,” Isbell said. “The last thing Democrats need to do is embrace conspiracy. Also distracts from real issues.”
Kelley’s latest statement about Garcia comes six days after Black Democratic leaders in South Florida — including Miami Gardens Sen. Shevrin Jones and Miami-Dade Commissioner Oliver Gilbert — held a news conference urging voters to reject the measure, which the Florida Policy Institute found would lead to significant shortfalls in public healthcare services and children’s services.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s administration expects Amendment 3 would shrink the county’s property tax revenues by a fifth. A Florida Association of Counties analysis found the county would suffer a $445 million hit.
Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz — who, like Garcia, won election in 2024 after being endorsed by President Donald Trump — has advocated for Amendment 3’s passage, running counter to the Florida Sheriffs Association’s position on the measure.
The measure needs 60% approval Nov. 3, and it appears the more voters learn about it, the less they like it.
A July University of North Florida poll found 61% support for the proposal, but that support fell to 45% once respondents heard about the hit to local budgets.
In a James Madison Institute poll last month, support among likely voters dropped from 76% to 55% after they heard about tradeoffs.
And a St. Pete Polls survey conducted for Florida Politics Sept. 15-17 found Amendment 3 with 45% support and 30% opposition, with the remaining quarter of respondents still undecided.
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