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Doral, Florida – A couple of years ago, real estate experts declared that Coral Gables had surpassed Beverly Hills as America's wealthiest neighborhood. Now, the city appears to be adopting the full California experience by embracing widespread Vote-By-Mail (VBM) in its local elections.
This week, the Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections mailed VBM ballots to all registered voters in Coral Gables—without requiring any requests from them. The ballots include eight proposed charter amendments, and all must be received back by 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21.
In California, voting occurs almost exclusively by mail. As this column has noted before, VBM is prone to fraud (see: Election Integrity Brigade Visits Supervisor of Elections). Its key deficiencies include:
No voter ID requirement.
No reliable control over the chain of custody for ballots.
Subjective signature matching and verification.
Reliance on the United States Postal Service, which is not trustworthy for sensitive items like checks or ballots—and whose unions are often partisan.
These ballots are sent automatically, with no need for an approved excuse (such as disability or military service) for voting by mail. Opportunities for early voting further reduce the justification for unrestricted VBM.
After the 2000 presidential election's "hanging chads" controversy, former President Jimmy Carter (D-GA) and former Secretary of State James Baker (R-TX) led a bipartisan commission on election reform. They concluded that VBM ballots “remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.”
In November 2024, the U.S. Department of State brought a group of 16 foreign journalists to observe election procedures in Miami-Dade County. Your columnist met with them shortly before they visited the Supervisor of Elections. The journalists were stunned by America's heavy reliance on VBM compared to their home countries (see: State Department Brought Foreign Journalists to Observe Miami-Dade Elections).
France used VBM starting in 1958 but abandoned it in 1975 after identifying significant fraud—particularly due to lost chain-of-custody control and the inability to verify voter identity. Officials noted that VBM enables coercion, vote-selling, and undermines ballot secrecy. Then-Minister of the Interior Michel Poniatowski articulated the dual goals of election procedures: (1) making voting more accessible and easier, and (2) ensuring an ever more honest vote. He concluded that while VBM simplifies access, it introduces an unacceptable risk of dishonesty.
President Trump opposes VBM and supports the Safeguarding American Vote Eligibility (SAVE America) Act, which would eliminate it. The bill has passed the House and moved to the Senate, where it faces obstacles including:
The filibuster rule, requiring 60 votes to advance debate (which some Senate Republicans resist changing).
Opposition from Republican Senators such as McConnell, Murkowski, and Tillis, who neglect election integrity and suffer from "Trump Derangement Syndrome."
President Trump continues pushing for the SAVE America Act, but key resistance comes from within his own party. A similar dynamic is playing out in Miami-Dade County, where the recently elected Supervisor of Elections and the Mayor of Coral Gables—both nominally Republicans—are advancing unrestricted VBM in ways that contradict a core element of the proposed federal reform.
Don’t let Coral Gables get Californicated!
