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now from CBS News Miami this is facing south Florida with Jim deti welcome to facing south Florida I'm Jim deti following Tuesday's primary the races for November are now set for the United States Senate Rick Scott will be up against Democrat Debbie masso pal in Congressional District 27 there was a close race to see who would take on Republican Maria Alva Salazar Democrat and School Board member Lucia bz Geller beat out former mayor of and Mike Davey Bas Geller will now face Salazar this fall locally two of Ronda santis appoes of the Broward School Board Tori Alon and Daniel fanelli lost their seats and for reasons that mystify me the Scandal plagued Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony won his primary guaranteeing his reelection in November in Miami Dade mayor Danielle LaVine Cava handly won reelection and we now know that Democrat James Reyes will face Republican Rosie Cordo stuts in the first Mii Dade sheriff's race in almost 60 years but there is another race that may very well be the most important of them all the race to see who will oversee elections in Miami dat County going forward for the first time in decades the supervisor of elections in Miami D will be an elected position and not just elected but also a partisan one Democrat JC plis will face Republican Alina Garcia in November making sure our elections run fairly should not be a partisan Affair and since the debacle of the 2000 election elections in Miami Dade have run smoothly and without any serious problems because the department has been overseen by professionals and not politicians but that's about to change so voters have to pay attention to this race and understand who the candidates are and to get us started we are joined this morning by the Democrat in the race JC pis JC welcome thank you very much Jim thank you for having me congratulations on your win uh so I sort of laid out why I think this is a critical and important race I'm sure you probably agree and I think it's one of those races that has the tendency to fly under the radar as everyone focuses on the mayor the sheriff the presidency but supervisor of elections critical it is definitely not the flashiest race but the truth is is that protecting our democracy is extremely important and as someone who's been in election lawyer for 15 years a professor of election law for 9 years I know full well how important this position is and in case people are wondering why it's important I want to go through and and make people understand you know it's not that I think that that if the wrong person got in there that they would go in and change votes or manipulate votes the important thing is it's the mechanics of election so deciding where precincts will be located deciding how many machines are allocated to a specific Precinct or polling site if you put if you take away Precinct sites for instance or precincts or or voting machines in a democratic district and therefore create long lines you could discourage voting in certain districts so that's why this is critical am I right yes and and I'll give you a prime example in 2012 we had long lines at early voting long lines on Election Day and simply by just reconfiguring the inside of the early voting sites we were able to eliminate those lines that's how critical this is that's a lot of the discretion that the supervisor has um the other issue is is that the state says sets the maximum amount of hours for early voting but supervisors at their discretion can actually shorten those hours we need to make sure that we have the maximum hours at early voting at all times Miami day deserves that so that I was going be one of my questions so that's one of your pledges you you would guarantee that Miami day elections would take advantage of the maximum number of hours for early voting for for day of votings absolutely and then and then of course there's lobbying the state for for Law changes right now early voting is only allowed in government buildings libraries Municipal halls for the presidential election they get one audible they get one facility that's outside of those we need to lobby for more there's no reason why the state should not be allocating resources to have early voting for instance in empty retail space or banquet halls facilities that have a lot of parking which is essential for early voting they are easy to get to and also happen to be in Suburban areas where voters are this is just a convenience to voters we should not be inconveniencing voters by any stretch of the imagination we need to take this out to where voters are so I want to talk about turnout in a minute but I want to continue the conversation about you heard me say at the top of the show about how I I don't think this should be a partisan Affair I don't think that we should have partisan election supervisors I think that just creates the appearance of even problems but obviously that's the system that you're running in you actually had been a republican for a number of years you then became an independent and ultimately a Democrat why did you switch from the Republican Party frankly it's lack of respect for democracy you know like Adam kininger said at the Democratic Convention here's a Conservative Republican speaking at the Democratic Convention and he says a line that is stuck with me democracy knows no party and that's the philosophy that I'm going to take to this the truth is is that this should be a nonpartisan office ironically I'm one of the few people running for office that never believed this should have been an elected office I I voted against amendment 10 back in 2018 I I asked people to vote against it this should be an office of professionals Miami Dade actually has one of the best supervisors of elections in the state she didn't want to be a politician I'm coming in yes I'm I'm running for the office but I'm here to be a professional doing a professional job to make sure everybody's vote counts in fact I'm going to protect the votes of those Republicans that are not going to vote for me even harder than I'm going to protect the other votes because that's how we protect our democracy you know we I want to turn as I said I want to turn to turnout uh um one of the things that could take place is you know Christina White the election supervisor that you referenced is has done a an amazing job in terms of running elections but she hasn't always been the most outfront public face encouraging people to vote what role do you think we had a very low turnout there's lots of reasons why the turnout was low it wasn't just in Miami day there was low turnout across the state I think we were around what 17% we got to 19% uh I was texting with the Hillsboro supervisor of elections during the day on Tuesday they were roughly the same Orange County had less um Lake County had a little bit more Lake County got to about 21 what do you think the election supervisor could do to try to get more voting taking place encourage more voting first of all I think we all have to act together there's an association it's a very tit init Association I think we have to act together believe it or not I think there are two things things that contributed to this number one is the name people hear the word primary well guess what NPA voters or independent voters for some reason don't think they can vote in this even though we have the mayor the judges all these important races that they can vote to in fact races that probably have even more indepth impact on our daily lives than the president ever will there are fewer Republican voters in this County than there are nonpartisan voters yet Republicans turned out more than nonpartisan voters because partisans hear the the word primary and they turn out I think we could change the name of the election call it the countywide municipal election and partisan primary maybe that I think the cancellation of the vote by mail ballots the automatic receipt a vote by mail ballots was very detrimental because not only obviously do they come in but some people they see the ballot in their mailbox and maybe they won't fill it out but it's their reminder that they have to go and vote so let me I mean I just want to hold you there cuz I want to I want to make sure people understand what you're talking about there used to be a system here in Florida where essentially you know if you were a regular voter and turned out you would get your absentee ballot would almost automatically if you had a requested by by absentee I know I know I'm old but the vote by mail if you had been voting by voted by mail in the past you you sort of it was automatic that you would sort of get it the legislature um uh for partisan reasons because because Democrats tend to favor to depress turnout so V so Democrats tend to vote by mail and so the legislature passed laws to reform what they said was a perfect system yeah and what they essentially did was say every year you have to reapply to get a vote by mail ballot so if you were used to getting it automatically and you didn't apply for one you suddenly didn't get it this time around let me give you the perfect example my mother-in-law has a master's degree my mother-in-law worked at the Miami dead County Attorney's Office for for almost 50 years with her education with her experience I had to help her fill out the application online because it's that cumbersome and this wasn't an application designed by the local supervisors this was Tallahassee so if my mother-in-law with a master's degree is having a hard time filling out her new request for vote by May how do you think the average resident citizen is having this is unconscionable completely all right your opponent is Elina Garcia who is a state representative you're a former state representative as well um she's currently in the state legislature she's not running for re-election she's running for this position instead we I've reached out to her she has not responded would you be willing to do a debate with her here on the show I would absolutely love to I think this is what the voters deserve voters deserve for candidates to come before them and talk about their issues talk about what they want to do talk about their experience and their background in this field I'm I'm always willing I I love talking about uh election law and how that so you you mentioned earlier that you're been an election law lawyer for for a number of years this is a specialty for you why did you go into this as a specialty well they they put two candidates they put four candidates against me in 2006 I kicked two of them off the ballot so when I'm permed out in 2010 I end up knowing more about election law than most lawyers and I fell in but I've been in love with the electoral process since I was 8 years old my we lived in Jacksonville the mayor of Jacksonville was running for governor my parents took my brother and I all over the state campaigning and when he loses in the primary they then took us all around the state campaigning for a then little known state senator from Miami Lakes named Bob Graham and this has been instilled in me since I was a kid I've never missed an election since I was 18 I absolutely love of the electoral process the the groups that I speak to can see my enthusiasm for elections and democracy and that's part of the reason even though I've only been a Democrat for four years I was able to win the Democratic primary so handily and let me just sort of the bow ties that's a that's a choice you're making a conscious Choice with when I was in the legislature it was half and half um I love them and I think like after 2012 it's been exclusively bow tied that's what I love I mean listen what we need for this job is a giant elections nerd who's not going to care about parties but who's going to care about getting it right and I'm your nerd all right JC pis thank you very much for coming in and again I hope Elina Garcia will come in and sit down across from me and then the two of you can debate it out so I'd like to hopefully we can get that done all right when we come back we will take a look at some of the other races I mentioned at the top of the show we'll be joined by political Kimberly Leonard stay with us [Music] welcome back I want to dig a little deeper into Tuesday's election results as well as look ahead to November and I can't think of a better person to do that with than the author of Florida's political Playbook Kimberly Leonard Kimberly thank you for coming in hi thanks for having me so first time on the show and so very appreciative uh of you uh stopping by but I want to start with with we just wrapped up we're taping this on Friday we just wrapped up 4 days of the Democratic National Convention All About The Vibes no Beyonce but I think the speech generally that KLA Harris gave was good and I think she did what she needed to do but the real question is does it does kamla Harris at the top of the ticket really change much in Florida does it put Florida at all in play so I don't think it puts it in Play Just Because I won't believe that it's in play until I see the Harris campaign spend some real money in Florida and then we have yet to see that we have yet to see any real changes in voter registration either I do think it might narrow the victory that Trump will have in Florida and undoubtedly it's generating a lot of you know energy um I think they announced this week that there were 30,000 33,000 volunteers now who were just in Florida you know doing door knocking and phone Banking and things like that so I think it does change the um the way that the race is perceived and how involved people are getting I also think that it could have an effect on some of the Amendments um especially the abortion Amendment I've even had Republican women who identify as pro-abortion rights tell me that they hope that having Harris at the top of the ticket will help to move this issue forward so they're going to vote Trump but then they're also going to vote in favor of abortion right yeah I think you know I I I completely agree with what you just said I think in some ways uh if Joe Biden had been at the top of the ticket it would have been very reminiscent of the 22 governor's race Charlie Chris did not Inspire Democrats to turn out and you know Ronda santis won by 19 points but it wasn't so much that Ronda santis did so much better than his previous election it's that Democrats just stayed home and the Democratic party sort of collapsed in terms of turnout and I think Biden as you said may have been headed that way as well in Florida depressing turnout and now Democrats are enthused and I think the Amendments also marijuana May benefit as as a result of it so that's a big step forward but there was the there some people still want to sort of talk to me about that it's going to have an imp effect on the senate race you know so let's talk about that race it's all about the money again spend money it's an expensive place to campaign well you were at Debbie Mel Pal's Victory party on on Tuesday uh what was the feeling like there yeah and the timing wasn't great because obviously a lot of Floridians a lot of Florida Democrats were you know out in Chicago for the DNC but yeah there was a lot of energy around her candidacy you know if she were to be elected she would be only the second let to join the Senate so um that idea energizes a lot of people especially in a state where you know the Hispanic voting block is so influential and so you know she got up on stage I think it was pretty clear that she was leading the pack all along the way you know even President Biden had endorsed her in Tampa or at least you know said we need to elect her which which I took as an endorsement and you know she's using a very similar Playbook to what vice president Harris is using against Trump she's talking about you know the freedoms that we should be able to enjoy in our state and you know and when she says that she means you know freedom freedom for Reproductive Rights freedom to you know uh have social security and Medicare continue and things like that and so we are seeing that very similar Dynamic play out and I think it'll be interesting to see if Harris herself comes to Florida to campaign and who is you know standing around her when she does that it there's also a thing Democrats just had have they really want to take Rick Scott out there's just something about Rick Scott that gets the Democrats and and what I always say is I don't think anybody loves Rick Scott maybe Mrs Scott loves Rick Scott but generally I don't but I don't know that he's somebody who creates a lot of passion but he wins and and at the bot at the end of the day that's all that matters they don't have to love you they just have to vote for you and Rick Scott is that guy who can you talk about money you know can write that check if they come to him at the end and said say we need another $4 million to run ads across the I4 he'll write that check for $4 million and he'll get his two or three point Victory he's never going to win in a blowout but he's always going to try to win just by just enough works really hard shows up in all the right places he was talking to the Venezuelan opposition leader last week after right before I interviewed him you know he understands where to be at the right time and so I do think that it's it's not just the money it's also you know the work that he puts into it and as far as I mean I think maybe the I think when you say nobody loves Rick Scott I will say having interviewed people who worked for him over the years it's he's might be the only politician where I haven't gotten you know a bad word or anything negative after people who work for him are very effusive about working for him which I realize might sound odd but that has been something that I've noticed over the past like five years or so there was a I just want to touch on one Congressional race up north in the Panhandle the Matt Gates race this was the this was the the end of the Kevin McCarthy uh Vengeance tour he had tried to identify some of those some of those uh Republican house members who had cost him the speakership chief among them Matt Gates he he spent probably $3 to4 million through his super pack you know with negative ads against Matt Gates but yet Matt Gates came and won by with 75% of the vote even more yeah yeah I mean people love the Matt Gates story love or hate him you know they just really want to follow his career and what happens um we had a story that Gary F out from Politico did that did extraordinarily well on our site um Gates seem very confident about you know not just winning but winning big from the very get-go now I do get the impression from what I've heard that McCarthy might have been workshopping some of this just in case um Gates does decide to run for governor next time um and so some of the attack lines over you know some of the legal issues and and things that he's faced might we might see how that resurface you know should that happen we might see McCarthy get involved again I mean it C he seems like he hasn't Let It Go that you just you just caused everyone to throw something at their television because you're already talking about the 26 Governor's race I've done the same thing I talk about it a lot it's and because it's going to be crazy on the Republican side and the Democratic side on the Democratic I feel like everyone wants to run for governor it's the hottest ticket in town I want to turn to another Congressional race the one down south I think the only one that Democrats sort of talk about maybe they could flip is the uh Maria alir Salazar seat District 27 with Lucia's Bas Geller Lucia bayas Geller running against her um I you know that's a r plus4 District you know so it's it's still an uphill climb it's you know when Donna Shela held that seat a few Cycles ago I think it was a d plus one so you know that District lost Miami Beach and added Westchester which is a republican area down here so it doesn't stack up well but it goes to the idea of will will Dade County vote for Trump will they turn out and will the same way that Dade County want you know Ronda santis won dat County Will he win here I don't know that he's going to win Dade County but I don't know if if Harris wins dat County if it's enough to bring luc's Bas Geller of cross the finish line right exactly and that's similar to kind of the mar Carell pal Dynamic right how much her candid is he helps with some of the other races um I mean I some of the ways that the D C you know which is the arm of the democratic party that works on these house races has started to attack Salazar have given us an idea of you know the messaging on that they say you know she goes around holding checks um I think I remember something about that yeah I was going to I wasn't going to bring it up but now you have um so that I think that'll play prominently you know they do want to try to do something in Florida just to be they have a they have a couple of seats that they're trying to flip including the one down here um I don't know how effective it'll be you know I also know that Trump is still very popular down here I mean I see Trump signs driving around I see more Trump sign I did see an amendment three signed today um that was new um but generally speaking it just seems like his support is really high here I think going into it the campaign maybe thought they could win Miami date um but you know now that Harris is at the top of the ticket I don't know how much that changes things I can't let you go without bringing up an issue of there's this crazy idea of taking state parks and putting golf courses or pickle ball courts in them and I've never seen an idea get so universally condemned by so many people so quickly what's going on here yeah yeah and both Republicans and and Democrats um and even you have Wilton Simpson urging people to show up and protest so what happened was it wasn't just the idea which itself enraged a lot of people who care about the environment and conservation but it also was the way that it was presented because it was essentially something that got leaked to the Tampa Bay times and then the proposal was put out which looked very similar to what the Tampa Bay Times had reported and then they they put out an announcement saying okay in all these different nine state parks across the the um the state we going to be meeting to discuss these ideas you know all at the same time all at once all very fast and so that caused a lot of backlash I mean we heard it all over you right and you've got Republicans who are usually in lock step with the disantis sort of coming out against you mentioned Wilton Simpson in the cabinet I've seen members of Congress does that does that suggest that maybe this party the the grip that that Ronda SZ has had on the party is beginning to slip a little I mean that's the thing I haven't seen anything like this in the entire time that you know Governor Dan santis has been in office he usually calls all the shots and people are completely in line with what he wants to do even if he has to muscle things through the legislature look he is entering his final couple of sessions and the attention very soon will turn to who is going to be the next governor of Florida so that definitely has an impact as to his influence Kimberly Leonard thank you we'll have you back we'll continue these conversations thank you I really appreciate it all right we'll be right back after the break if you have any thoughts or comments about today's show feel free to contact me at jde cbs.com I do enjoy hearing from you well that's all the time we have we'll be back again next week thanks again for watching and enjoy the rest of your day [Music]