This Week In South Florida: Alina Garcia and Juan Carlos Planas

I've heard from many voters that have no party affiliation, that they believe this isn't an election for them to vote in, and nothing could be further from the truth. >> All 1.5 million registered voters in Miami-Dade are eligible. That was Miami-Dade Election Supervisor Christina White during last month's primary. >> She's the nonpartisan, not nonpartisan professional consistently credited with running smooth, efficient and fair elections. Now, in November , for the first time, Miami-Dade voters will elect a supervisor in a partisan race like Broward does now, the two candidates running are here for the first time together for not really a formal debate, but a chance to make the case for you. Answer some questions, Jay Planas is the Democrat in the race. A former state rep and now an elections attorney, Alina Garcia is the Republican in the race. She is finishing her terms as state representative in Tallahassee. And both are here. Right here at the table today. And I'm so happy that you are. And we have this chance to have sort of a little debate, a little conversation. Um, first question, I'm going to start alphabetically, Lee Garcia, if that's okay. Okay. So I want to get a sense of what you both bring to a supervisor of elections position. Alina what do you bring to this position? Well good morning, Glenna. >> Thank you very much for having us here today. >> And you can talk to us to feel comfortable. >> Okay. Um, well, my name is Alina Garcia, and I'm the state representative for district 115. I'm running for supervisor of elections because I think it is a very important position. >> I have the endorsement and the support of our firefighters and our police, and what I bring to the table is my 30 years of experience serving in the community in different positions as, uh, uh, I served in the House of Representatives, in the Senate, in Congress, and the city of Miami. >> And my I just want to clarify, not as a congresswoman or a state senator, but in. No, no, as, as as as no as a as an aide to the to elected officials . So I learned I learned from the electeds of that time. And now you're finishing the good and the bad, and now you're finishing your own terms as state I am, I am, I will be a state representative until until the, the next election. And God willing, then I'll be a supervisor of elections. Uh, I think Christina White has done a great job, and we plan on keeping her her, uh, you know, it's a nice transition from woman to woman. >> Well, we'll talk about a little bit of that. I want to get Jake. Um, what do you bring to the table? Why are you in this race? >> Well, I'm Jake Planas, and I am running for supervisor of elections. >> I've been an elections attorney for over 15 years. I've done more than 20 recounts, not just in Miami-Dade, but all over the state of Florida. And yes, Christina White's the best. >> And know this because I've worked on elections all over the state of Florida and nobody does it better than Miami-Dade County . >> I've been teaching election law for over eight years, and in fact, it was my election law students who first encouraged me to run for this position. >> I want to now take kind of delve into I'm going to talk a little bit about the politics of it later in the campaign later, because it's a first right in Miami-Dade. But I want to start out with you know, the procedures you've seen you both really have said glowing things about the procedures and the person in place. Do you see anything that you would change right off the bat? >> Yes, I would like to have more transparency. I would like to have more, um, you know, Miami-Dade County, we have so many people that become citizens . And when they go vote for the first time, they are, um, they have no idea what they're doing and they're scared. And it's. So I want to be more transparent and have more education and bring a little bit more of that. >> Let me just clarify what you're saying, because transparency is one thing. Education is another thing. Is there do you find something that is not totally transparent in the process at the moment? >> It's not that it's not transparent. It's just that people don't know how it rks. So education, awareness, education and transparency both together, they go hand in hand. You know, I would like to have the TV cameras, you know, when they're counting the votes so that people see exactly where the ballots go and how they're counted, you know, because that gives that gives the people confidence. And that's I think it's a very important thing that the electorate have a confidence on in the Department of Elections. >> J.C, I, I will say I've been with our cameras when we are there watching and having people kind of say, oh, back up, back up. What do you think? Is there something about the process at the moment that you think needs changing? >> The process is transparent and in fact, as a law professor teaching election law students, I bring them to the Department on the night that they count the votes. So many students didn't even know. Anyone can walk in to the elections office on the night they count the votes. I think communication is the issue, not because of the department, but because it's been part of the county. It's been hamstringing in the way it communicates. So we are going to go out to the people. We are going to show the people how transparent the process actually really is. The truth is, is that we have the safest, most efficient election system we've ever had. In fact, for the past ten years, we've had our technology go up to the point that it's a safe system. Unfortunately for the past six years, faith in the system has gone down. But this is the result of misinformation that's been given out to the public. So we're going to combat a lot of this misinformation. >> Let me let me just detail that. What what misinformation has been going on? >> Well, I mean, you know, it started in 2019 with Donald Trump talking about failures of vote by mail ballots, when actually we have the safest system we've ever had. And then sowing doubts with the electoral process and sowing doubts about the 2020 election. The truth is, is that even Donald Trump's same people said it was the safest election. What's sad is that it's resulted in threats against elections officials, the US attorney general just this week talked about threats against election officials. We can't have this type of misinformation because it puts people's lives in danger. >> And so and you're talking on a national level, yes. >> It hasn't permeated Miami-Dade yet. >> Thank God bring you into that that conceptually on a on a local level, do you feel like people have faith in elections and the difference, the difference between the state of Florida and other states is that , number one, we've had a Republican, uh, legislature and a Republican governor. >> Then we've been making laws to make sure that our elections are are safe and they're effective, and they're and they're fair. Um, there's, uh, there's states where they have universal ballots. And I think that that's, that's been the issue in, in Florida in order to receive a vote by mail, you have to first be a registered voter, and then you have to request the absentee ballot. Then there's checks and balances. So I think that it's a lot safer in Florida. I don't really know the laws of other states, but I know that there are universal ballots and that's where the problem comes in. >> So let me let me just ask you about the conservative state legislature put in election integrity laws. That's what they were called election integrity laws tightened some of some of the laws, all the while saying, we're doing this kind of preemptive because we don't see any problems. There were no problems. On the other hand, what some would call election integrity, I think a lot of people, especially in the Democratic side of the aisle called it, um, something like, uh, preventing people from voting. Well, and I wanted people that are not U.S. citizens are not registered to vote. >> They don't have a right to vote. >> So how would you and this is Cole leading up to the question, how would you make it super simple and easy for those who are valid voters to vote? >> It is super simple and easy. Right now. All you have to do is fill out, you know, fill out the form and or you can call or do it online. It's very easy today. It's people just are not. >> So no changes in the electoral. >> Well that would not be up to the supervisor of elections that would be up to the legislature. I have a great relationship with the legislature and I'm sure that if there's anything that I see while we're there, we can we can make it happen. And do you think, you know, as the laws stand now, I mean, the state sets the hours for early voting, but certainly locally you can work within those parameters and change those hours. >> But how how would you take the laws that the state has handed you and make it unbelievably easy for registered voters to vote? >> Well, right now we have a sense that our our centers arehe just not good. The legislature actually needs to expand the type of places we can use for early voting. We have places that don't have adequate parking . We have places that don't have the most conducive areas for early voting. We need to spend the money to be able to have places like shopping centers and banquet halls that have ample parking. You need a change of law for that. We need a change of law for that. Yes, the legislature needs to expand. So for the general election in November, they allow one audible. They need to be able to allow 2 or 3 audible places that are outside the round. >> By audible, you mean the place that choose. >> Yes. The local can choose a place that is not a library or a government center. As far as illegal voting, I mean, in 1996, we passed a comprehensive immigration bill nationally that prevents us, um, people that aren't citizens from voting. And even the Brennan Center and the Heritage Foundation, a concern of entity, the Heritage Foundation found that between 2003 and 2023, only 24 instances of people who were non-citizens voting. This is not an endemic problem. I think this is a created problemAgain, to sow doubt in our elections. And this is wrong. All right? It positior the first time. A partisan race in this county. JC how do you think that partisanship does it change the dynamics of this job? >> Well, it's horrible. I mean, the truth is, is that I'm probably the only person running for office who never felt before that this should have been an elected office. I think we did well with appointees. It definitely should not be a partisan office. I'm going to try to take politics out of it. In fact, before I filed, I texted and a lot of the Republican attorneys that I worked with and I said, I don't expect you to vote for me. I don't expect you to support me, but know you will always have an open door to the office because everybody needs to have a seat at the table to make sure that this office runs the best way possible. >> I mean, elections just shouldn't be a party thing. Everybody wants free and fair elections. Do you do you think partisanship injects anything into the dynamic? And should it and will it with you? >> It will not. It will not. I will run a fair, uh, supervisor of elections. Uh, I'll be a fair supervisor of elections. And I. But the issue is this whether a race is partisan or it's not partisan, people are Republican. Democrat or no or no party affiliate there. You know, that's how we feel. That's how we, you know, so at the end of the day, um, like, for example, we just had the mayoral race and that position is non party, but but the person that won that position is very Democrat. She's very Democrat. And she only supports Democrats. So it it you know is it non party. Is it never is. >> Well I will run the Department of elections I can I can I just say without the mayor sitting here to defend herself. You know in, in an election a party representative will support their own party. But in the job is what I'm talking about in the job of a nonpartisan. >> I wonder how many Republicans are in in that team. I wonder. >> So my question to you is you will not inject any partisanship at all. Let me how how the campaign itself you have now, you have to run as it. Well, you both ran. As for state rep, you were a former state rep. So you know what campaigns are like. You get donors. You get donors who support your campaign, allow you to run JSI your donor for this job comes to you one day and needs support and a favor. How do you handle that? >> Well, I mean, if it's help voting, obviously you're going to help everyone voting. If it's something dealing with contracts for voting machines, I'm going to say buy, buy, buy, um, let me just contrast something that the rep resentative said. And this is the problem with a partisan election, um, a growing, growing number of the people in nonpartisan voters and to deny them the ability to vote in primaries and to select the candidates, I think is wrong. The mayor, by the way, got with the presidential and the Democrats. The mayor got 30% of the Republicans and got almost 70% of the NPA's. So I think they call that an overly partisan race is wrong. But the truth is, is that all voters should be picking all the best candidates for this. And to deny any type of voter a role in the primary, I think, is wrong. And that's why I think we need to change it. But the truth is, is that that's also a state law. Yes. This is the you know, you talk about the donors. This is the least transactional job there is. This isn't like the sheriff's office that you have cars and uniforms. Um, this is an extremely difficult position to raise money for because, you know, what are you calling? Hey, would you like to save democracy ? Which is the platform that I'm running on? Um, the truth is, is that there are people that are donating very little, and that's important because it shows that they want to protect this office . Um, at the end of the day, I've decided I'm not taking any money from anybody who represent any sort of voting system. That's going to be a blatant conflict of interest, and we're going to do that as blindly as possible. >> Let me give Elena a chance to answer that. I mean that that is a valid question for anybody running for office and especially in this office. I mean, are people telling you that this isn't really worth their time? >> It's super difficult to raise money for this race. The people that that. >> Why do you think that is? Because they don't expect anything. Not a sexy seat. >> You know, people n't realize how important it is. You know, the supervisor of elections, a very important position because, you know, democracy is the cornerstone of, you know, voting is the cornerstone of our democracy. And, you know, I was born in Cuba and in Cuba, we don't have democracy. We don't have voting. You know, look what's happening in Venezuela, where you have where the person that won is not getting, uh, is not being allowed to serve. So you know, democracy and elections, they come hand in hand and they are super important and absolutely not. You know, um, the only thing that as a sta representative, when people would donate to the campaign actually, that's that just gives you, you know, it's just because they want to support you and it gives you a time to maybe sit down and explain what it is that you want. But that doesn't mean that you're going to vote that way. No it doesn't, but we have reform of course not. >> But we've covered plenty of instances where we see that money trail lead to decisions. But in the short time we have together, I want to just kind of throw out there for the primary vote. Last month, turnout in Dade was 19, 19, 19% tt, you know, I was telling people that means two out of every ten people make your decision. >> It was endemic in the state of Florida. Yes. Orange didn't even reach 17. So what is the role do you see as a supervisor of elections to you know, it's a free country. >> People don't have to vote if they don't. But to bring up that engagement. >> I am the communication is going to be a big part of this. I am going out into the colleges. I mean, I've been teaching in law school and in undergrad now for a while. We do need to engage our younger people. We don't see the site visits to the high schools. We are going to be registering. I think there has to be public service announcements. Listen, I expect to come here during the August election to promote this. I think one of the problems we have is also the way we're selling the election. You know, we're going to have like 80% turnout for November. We only had 19 in August. And August. We're electing the mayor of the 80. You expect 80. Yeah. That's typical. Yeah You get 70 to 80% in in the November election. An especially for president lower in the midterms. But in the August election we elect our mayor, our commissioners, our school board members, our zoning board members, our judges. ese are people who have much more impact on the daily lives of individuals than the president of the United States may ever have. So I think we need to promote this. I think this has to be an all hands on deck policy. I think we need to get all our county commissioners in on it and make sure that people are going out to vote. But again, the fact that we have a closed primary system, even though these were nonpartisan races, a lot of NPAs thought they couldn't vote in the primary. So we will have an education aspect to inform the NPAs that they can vote in that election. That's important. >> Okay. Um, Melina, what about you? Is there a role and what would your role be getting up above 90? >> Yeah, absolutely. As I said at the beginning, you know, transparency and education and in all forms, you know, in all forms, education is super important, very important. And the fact that we have so many people that are voting for the first time, um, those people need to have, uh, you know, we need to instruct them a little bit more because they, they don't really understand how it works. They come from countries where maybe they've never been allowed to vote in their lives. So no idea. >> You go out and meet them where they are, they come in. How does that happen? >> You do it through the media. You guys would be instrumental. We're really good at that. Yeah, you're very good at that. We do it through the media and we could also do it, you know, like by going to events and, um, you know, as supervisor of elections, there's going to be a lot more that can be done because the supervisor now is appointed and that supervisor has some hamstrings, right? We now are going to be beholden to the people because they're the ones that elect us. >> Well, on Christina's behalf. And unsolicited, I think she works as if she's beholden to the she's the best. Selina Garcia, thank you so much. I think this has been a really great conversation. And we'll se. We'll see one of you in November. Well hopeful