Miami News Blog

When following the Diaz-Balart races this fall just wasn't enough for me I'd check in on my pet race, the one for the Senate seat in Minnesota between Al Franken and Norm Coleman. Maybe it's because Minnesotan blood runs through me. Maybe it's because the thought of Stuart Smiley entering congress amused me to no end. Maybe it's because Franken managed to make a true believer out of even notoriously cynical David Letterman who said, "When he talks and he says something, I believe him more than I believe anybody who currently holds a seat in the Senate," which in turn slightly melted my own cynical facade. 

Of all ballots cast in Florida November 4, John McCain actually led Barack Obama by five points, according to a new Associated Press study. Wowza. But Obama led the Maverick by 11 percentage points in early and absentee voting, thus winning the state. Nearly one-third of all votes cast in Florida were by mail or before Election Day.

Guess all the Republicans really did have a reason to want Charlie Crist's snowy-white head when he extended early voting hours.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

New Times hasn't caught up with Miami's own Fauxbama, Gerardo Puisseaux, since Tuesday's election results but the Obama impersonator industry is already seeing the influx of a host of new entrants.

Our favorite new Fauxbama comes from a user named AlphaCat on YouTube. Guy has the look and the voice down pat. Check out his debate preparation sketch, or the video above set to T.I.'s "Whatever You Like."

First black prez / Aint that nice. / Im in the highest office thats right! / Now I can do whatever I like / So what Im half black and half white / So what I fist bump with my wife / Man I can do whatever I like/ Man I can do whatever I like

But he's not the only new Fauxbama. Hipster Runoff reported an "ObamaAlt" siting on The Cobra Snake, before sharing dreams of Obama being a uniter, not a divider in the ongoing war between alts and mainstreams.

The Miami-Dade Elections office is releasing all of their nifty post-election data, and here's a map showing the geographical divide of the county. Even though Obama could be considered green in two alternative meanings of the word, he is actually represented by the teal. McCain is green. Beige represents a tie (in all but two of those precincts, no one actually voted. In the others two people each showed up and canceled the other out. I'm pretty sure those correlate to islands and such).

With a few notable exceptions, Obama dominated the areas closer to the coast, while McCain dominated our own version of the "Inland Empire". Those big patches of teal even further out west represents all of 1,731 vote (though, they did break handily for Obama).

--Kyle Munzenrieder

Riptide told you about Amendment 1, the ballot initiative that would basically change nothing, except remove a tiny passage in our state constitution that was rooted in racism. There wasn't really any logical reason to vote against it (every other state that had similar language has since removed it), but somehow 52 percent of us did.

Now the socialist newsletter known as the New York Times is here to subtly shame us.

“It’s terribly disappointing,” said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. “At a time when our country has turned away from a history of racism, we have left a racist and anti-immigrant provision in Florida’s Constitution.”

Ms. Little and others who supported removing the provision said that a mix of confusion and prejudice seemed to have led to defeat.

Apparently Floridians got to the voting booth and didn't really have all the information on what they were voting on. Imagine! Which kind of makes you wonder about the viability of this whole ballot iniative thing (at least in the manner we've used it now). Seriously, Floridians tell pollsters by a large majority they're down with civil unions yet somehow voted to ban them anyway.

Winnie Tang, president of the Florida chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans, hopes to get the amendment on the ballot again. But the Florida legislature could easily undue the language with a three-fifths vote in each house. Every other state has gotten rid of similar remnants of a racist legacy. Why hasn't Florida?

--Kyle Munzenrieder

Last night was a bit bittersweet for liberals. We may have finally gotten our first "radical socialist" President into the White House since FDR, but in four states, including Florida, voters went to the polls to decide the fate of other people's personals affairs in the form of anti-Gay ballot measures, and it seems that all four of them will pass.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking is California's Prop 8 which takes away a right previously afforded to people. This whole idea of state initiatives comes out of the Progressive Era, and it's original intent was never to decide issues of civil rights. Quite simply it's a perversion of democracy, and our sister paper out in San Francisco, SF Weekly, scored an interview with newly-elected California State Senator Mark Leno on the next step the battle for gay rights will take.

Yep, it's off to the supreme court once Obama replaces a few of the older conservative justices. We'll see, but Riptide has at least have a bit of hope that the part of our Amendment 2 that forbids civil unions may not hold up if it's challenged.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

Elton Gissendanner, New Times' favorite octogenarian ex-con running for a Florida House seat lost to Republican incumbent Denise Grimsley last night, as expected. It was a landslide: at last count, Grimsley had him beaten by more than 25,000 to his less than 12,000 votes. In a voting district in which Obama was beaten handily and only one race- for a sheriff- went blue, Gissendanner finished with the lowest vote total of any Democratic candidate. "I knew the chances of winning were zilch to nil," said Gissendanner this afternoon. "The position I was running for has been in Republican hands for 25 years. The only disappointment was finishing last in the party. I didn't think it would go quite that bad."

But Riptide didn't find him moping around his Lake Placid house. The lifelong vet was returning home from his real job: emasculating dogs and cats. "In fact, I didn't want to go to work today, because I'm sick with a cold," he says. "But with the election, I felt like I had a lot of vet work to make up. I did 23 animals today."

"Keep breathing," Gissendanner quips when asked of his ambitions after the loss, and says he has no plans to seek office again, although with a Roger Clemens-like caveat: "Never say never."

And though he says he suspects his wife Frances was "relieved" by his loss, Elton, who turns 81 this month, maintains his Depression Era-rooted distaste for the notion of quitting work for good. "I've been delaying my retirement for about five years," he says. "And it will probably be about 20 more until I take it."

Asked for his feelings on the Obama victory, Gissendanner turns cranky: "I'm a Democrat. Do I have to explain that to you?"

-Gus Garcia-Roberts

Once the McCain camp realized it needed something to run on besides "Hey, at least our guy didn't serve on some board with a washed up old terrorist," they decided to brand Obama as a "spread the wealth" Socialist. Well, the people who would suffer the most financially under socialism, and likely will see their taxes increased under an Obama administration, voted for him. Yep, according to CNN exit poll people who make more than $200,000 a year voted for Obama nationally at a rate of 52%. In Florida they voted for him 51% of the time. A strong reversals from 2004, as the same group voted for Bush 66% of the time nationally.

More interestingly, they were also one of the very few demographic groups were the majority voted no on amendment two at a whopping rate of 60%. In fact, in all of CNN's demographic slicing and dicing that group voted higher against the amendment than any other group except for self described Liberals, white Democrats, Jews and Irreligious folk.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

The Seminole Casino is the older, smoke-filled joint across the street from the Hard Rock in Hollywood. When a slot or poker player is in the zone, it seems like gambling is their only care in the world. Not even one of the most exciting presidential elections in history could tear them away from the casino, right?

Don’t wager on it. Of the half dozen or so gamblers I approached on election day at the Seminole Casino, all but one had picked a horse in the race. They spoke semi-excitedly about their “sure-bet,” Barack Obama.

“We need change,” a middle-age white woman from Davie said. “I never saw so many black people voting before,” she added before lunging to slip her frequent player card into a suddenly vacant slot machine. No way is she going to lose a hot machine over some political small-talk.

A middle-age black man sitting near the poker tables said he voted early on Friday, out of fear that he’d be prevented from casting a ballot on Election Day. Better to catch any glitches early, he figured. But those two hours and 45 minutes standing in line sure were tough. As he wearied, a 70-year-old black lady behind him in the early voting line wagged her finger at him and lectured: “Our people before us had to go through a lot worse than this. So you just hold on.” He did. Now he gets to slide into a seat at the no-limits poker table.

A young black man said he headed to vote at 5:30 am so that he wouldn’t miss a poker promotion called Aces Cracked. I asked how long he waited.

“I’m still waiting.”

“To vote?”

“Nooo, for a poker table.”

Okay, so maybe, for these folks, a thrilling presidential race can’t compete after all with the enticement of poker bonuses and free spins on slot machines lit up like carnival rides.

-- Amy Guthrie

10:30 PM

“Oh, it’s going to be a landslide,” Mayor Manny Diaz declared to Riptide at the official Democratic results watch party at a ballroom in Parrot Jungle. At this point it wasn’t much of a newsflash: Pennsylvania had just been called for Obama, sparking chants of “Yes We Did” from partygoers drunk on impending victory and alcohol.

Roughly half an hour later, the giant projection screen flashed the definitive results, and as the place exploded, Riptide decided to hit the streets. Our plan: look for fireworks and listen for clusters of car horns. The simple plan brought us into the raucous hearts of Miami’s black neighborhoods. Almost instantly, pockets of crazy revelry had taken over whole streets.

At NW 54th St. and 2ng Ave., Haitians young and old forced a block to be closed off as they danced in the streets. Old women in sun dresses shook cowbells, and young teenagers on bikes raced recklessly around moving cars. An elderly white-bearded man hunched in the middle of the crawling traffic and, with loud grunts, thrusted a sign with a photo of Obama at the motorists inside, letting that do the talking for them. Caribbean music and rap clashed with the constant horn-jamming.

The scene at and NW 62nd St and 7th Ave, was wilder. Made foggy with firework smoke, that intersection hosted a chaotic four-way parade of people driving with doors flung open, and friends and strangers clinging on to hoods or riding on rooftops, all screaming nothing but “Obama!” Many of the drivers hung completely out of their car doors, controlling their steering wheels with a finger, and the pedals with a sneaker toe. In the thirty minutes that Riptide witnessed this acrobatic gridlock, we were amazed that there wasn’t an accident, although our own car almost got smashed into by one of these “ghost-ridden” SUVs. The driver never saw us, and the expression on his face, pointed skyward, indicated he was somewhere else, in ecstasy.

The most fantastic part about these scenes? The cops dispatched to stand around in futile hopes of maintaining order were caught smiling at the shenanigans. Even though—yep, that’s a kid setting off a bottle rocket as he sits on the trunk of a Buick barreling through a Wendy’s parking lot. Miami-Dade cops, white ones, smiling.

A strange, wonderful night.

-Gus Garcia-Roberts

"I'm nervous," says a young woman with an Obama sticker carefully placed in the middle of her shirt. We asked if she voted. "No, I can't. I'm not a citizen," she responds. Still that didn't deter her from wanting to take part in the democratic process and watch last night's election results at PS14, a dive bar located on the fringes of downtown Miami, with a group of 20 or so hipsters.

Funny thing is "apathetic" is usually the word used to describe hipsters, people who really don't stand for anything expect for looking painfully cool and partying hard. But this election seemed to mobilize the group. Miami alone had a Hipsters for Obama group and local parties invited Democratic candidates to mingle with its patrons.

"But what if he doesn't win," chimes in another 20-something woman. At this point Obama was leading the electoral votes, with only 10 minutes until the polls in the west coast closed. We explained to her that it was Obama's race to lose and even if he lost Florida, the guaranteed wins in California, Washington and Oregon would be enough to push him over the 270 electoral votes needed.

Sure enough, after 11 p.m., MSNBC declares Obama the president elect, and on cue the DJ blasts "Movin' On Up" the theme song to The Jeffersons. Everyone claps to the beat as they sing along. People hug each other, seemingly in relief that the era of a Republican-controlled federal government is over.

A few minutes later, John McCain pops up on the screen to give his concession speech from the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. The crowd gathered in the bar listens carefully, grinning as they see the dreams of a man who so badly wanted to be president of United States crushed. When McCain mentions Sarah Palin, everyone quickly boos at the monitor and someone screams "Fuck you!" Palin looks visibly heartbroken that she won't be just a heartbeat away from being president.

After McCain wraps up his speech, the DJ blasts Ray Charles "Hit The Road Jack." People start to giggle. "Doesn't it feel great?" someone exclaims.

-- Jose D. Duran

11:04 p.m.

The TV's may have had electoral maps instead of ESPN, but it was just another South Beach party atop the swank Gansevoort Hotel until 11 p.m. -- bass thumped from the speakers, beautiful people lounged in white-curtained cabanas, $9 beers passed across the bar.

Then it hits like a tidal wave. Heads whip around down the length of the rooftop, from the jam-packed bar to the fringes leaning on glass walls and looking down at the ocean.

Barack Obama's face fills a huge projection screen at the front of the room. And there's no denying the text beneath: "CNN Projects: Barack Obama Wins the Presidency."

Feet stomped against the wooden planks on the floor like fans at a football game. Wild cheers rose into the night. A group of four young black men linked arms like school-kids and danced in a circle.

The party was technically non-partisan, but the McCain supporters must have smelled defeat in the air and stayed home. As McCain gave his concession speech, the party was definitely on -- one young partier wrapped his head in red-white-and-blue tape and danced around the bar, another group started chants of "Obama!" and "Yes We Can!"

With the techno finally turned down and McCain's speech filling the bar's speakers, another chant picked up steam and eventually drowned out the Arizona senator's last words as a candidate: "Ay-hey-hey ... Goooodbyeeee ..."

-- Tim Elfrink

After nearly two years of campaigning, tonight things change. Join Riptide all night as we bring you nonstop coverage of not only the main event but also the heated congressional races as well as the state and local races. Up top we'll have the latest status of all the major races; after the cut we'll have up-to-the-minute play-by-play coverage. Don't be afraid to join the discussion by e-mailing or commenting. This post will be up top all night, but we'll have other posts appearing below as the night progresses.

President of the United States, Barack Obama vs. John McCain: Barack Obama is the next President of the United States of America. In a word: Wow.
Florida's Electoral Votes: Obama!

Congressional Races
Dist. 21, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart vs. Raul Martinez: Lincoln Diaz-Balart
Dist. 25, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart vs. Joe Garcia: Mario Diaz-Balart
Dist. 18, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen vs. Annette Taddeo: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Amendments
Amendment 2 (the homophobia one): Ugh, just ugh.
Others: Amendments 3, 4 and 6 are on their way to passing. Amendments 8 and 1 aren't looking too well.

County Races: Harvey Ruvin for Clerk of Courts. Property Appraiser headed for run off, with Gwen Margolis in the lead.

Our sister paper Phoenix New Times is live blogging directly from John McCain's rally at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona, the senator's home state. As things are looking now, the party might not be much of a party at all. Still, we are going to remain conservative in our guessing that Barack Obama has won this race, because there are still plenty of votes that need to be counted. Click here to check out all the action.

Want a broader perspective of what's happening across the nation with the general election? Well, our 14 sister papers are doing plenty of their own coverage as well. Here are some of the highlights:

• Westword tries to find problems at the polls but encounters nothing but smooth sailin'. Also, sad puppies and kitties make for good campaign material.
• In San Francisco, arguably the most liberal city in America -- nay, the world -- SF Weekly finds the city's lone McCain supporter.
• Houston Press reports things were ablaze at one polling center in the city's Third Ward, a poor black neighborhood. Well, it was more like smoke was coming out of a voting machine. Let the conspiracy theories fly!
• The sole Krispy Kreme location left in Miami is on NE 167th Street, and they are handing out I Voted doughnuts! Dallas Observer does the taste testing. Also, if you are wondering what George W. Bush is going to do with all that extra time -- er, yeah, we don't care either.
• Talk about your exit poll! Check out this sweet way of voting with your used piece of chewing gum courtesy of Riverfront Times.
• Over at LA Weekly, Justin Warfield of She Wants Revenge guest-blogs on the election. How indie electro-rock of him!
• City Pages reports no lines at the polls in Minneapolis this afternoon. Big contrast from the enormous lines this morning.
• Nashville Scene has some things you should look out for during tonight's election results.
• Seattle Weekly rebuffs the idea from the big news networks that Obama will have something to prove unless he wins by a landslide.

-- Jose D. Duran

5:15 p.m.

You've got to give Elian Misael credit for bringing something different to Election Day.

"No Obama! No McCain!" Miseal screams, dressed head-to-toe in black and pacing the sidewalk in front of Versailles as rush-hour traffic hums past.

Grinning beneath dark sunglasses, his fingernails painted black, Misael waves a homeless-guy-quality cardboard sign. Scrawled in Spanish, it reads: "No Obama/McCain! Vote for the President of the Galaxy, The Emperor."

That, apparently, would be Misael.

"I am the emperor of the galaxy," he explains calmly.

"So are you on the ballot?" Riptide asks.

Misael smiles knowingly, jabbing a thumb at his chest. "That's me. I am the president," he says, his English halting. "Of the galaxy."

A dozen paces south, in front of the entrance to the fabled home of Cuban cooking and conservative politics, a slightly less deluded group is gathered. About a dozen men wearing "Insane 4 McCain" T-shirts wave signs and blow air horns at the passing cars, many of which honk enthusiastically.

"This is a fantastic day. We're all excited to be here on the day John McCain wins," says Alfredo Santos, age 59.

Santos begins to explain why he supports McCain when a silver pickup truck slows near the curb. At least a dozen young boys are in back and start pounding on the side. "Obama! Obama!" they shout. "Obama!"

"Obama is a rapper!" screams back Yasseto Torres, age 30, blowing an air horn and jogging toward the pickup. "He is just a rapper!"

The pickup speeds away and Torres elaborates. "He is a rapper. He speaks well, he has an entourage, he's famous," Torres says. "He shouldn't be running this country. It's like this guy Chavez, it's like Castro all over again."

"He don't know nothing. At least McCain has experience, he's a hero," Santos says. "Obama, he's not even a Christian."

"You know he's not a Muslim, right?" Riptide asks.

"You don't know your history!" Santos says. "He grew up a Muslim; his relatives are Muslim. You need to read about this guy."

Santos begins to elaborate on how Obama's tax cuts for the middle class will herald a turn to Castro-style Communism when another commotion breaks out. It's the pickup again.

"Obama! Obama!" the boys in the back yell happily, laughing.

"He's just a rapper!" Torres says, chasing after the pickup as it drives down Calle Ocho and into the sunset.

-- Tim Elfrink

We've been working hard all day to bring you the scene at the polls, but a bit before 7 p.m., we'll switch into Election Night mode with a special emphasis on local results. Check back often for the latest updates on not only the epic Obama v. McCain battle, but also the outcome on the state and county charter amendments, as well as, and most important, the fate of the Diaz-Balart dynasty.

In the meantime, here's a wrapup of all the latest Election Day buzz you might have missed while waiting in line.

• 538's final predictions: Obama with 349 electoral votes, and Florida by 1.7% [538]
• The Dow is up more than 300 points today. [Yahoo! Finance]
• Voting in Miami has been going smoothly. [Herald]
• Sarah Palin voted, but she's not saying for whom. [Joan Walsh]
• The election is not even over yet, but murmurs of who might be in Obama's cabinet are already circulating. John Kerry for secretary of state, apparently. [Yglesias]
• Everyone is voting, including Vogue editor Anna Wintour. [NY Mag]
• Actor Tim Robbins wasn't so lucky. His name got mysteriously removed from the voter rolls. [NY Times]
• Phew. Rep. Ilean Ros-Lehitinen's vote counted. I wonder whom she voted for. [Naked Politics]
• No change here: The ladies of The View continue to be wild. [Broadsheet]

--Kyle Munzenrieder

Given Florida's penchant for pandemonium at the polls, and the unprecedented turnout during early voting, we were expecting rabid voting-card-armed mobs attacking our libraries, schools, and churches today. Instead we've encountered what everybody but a reporter wants to see on Election Day: calm and order.

At 1:36 this afternoon, the polling place at Sunny Isles Beach was the most packed I saw, with about 100 people in line. "They say it's going to take me two hours," said Betty Barrett, the last in line. "It doesn't matter. I'll be damned if I don't vote because of that."

From there I checked out polling sites in Surfside, Miami Beach at Collins and 75th, Normandy Shores, and North Miami, and found the same thing everywhere: metaphorical tumbleweeds. The scene at the little library on 75th and Collins was especially surprising because when I voted early there, the place had all the serenity of a Mexico City bus depot. It was packed to the gills, seemingly everybody was finding problems with their registration, and the poll workers looked overwhelmed by it all. But at 2:15 this afternoon, the scene resembled a doctor's office, with only a dozen people waiting, most of them sitting in chairs. "Everybody already did their thing," said a chatty Miami-Dade line wrangler with no line to be wrangled. "It was busy until around 12:30."

Not that that polling center was without some contention: specifically, two guys standing on the corner of 75th with a "Communists for Obama" sign. "McCain's going to take Florida," declared Jordan Katz. "Obama supporters are very vocal, but there's a silent majority that's going to swing this the other way, and there's going to be a lot of surprised people across the country."

Meanwhile, a man waved an Obama sign across the street, and whenever cars streamed by, the two mini-camps would try to outscream each other. "This guy's stupid enough to think I'm on his side," said Dave Crystal, referring to his "Communists" sign. "He doesn't realize that my sign is facetious. A lot of these Obama idiots are like that."

For his part, Obama supporter Terry Carpenter rose above the back-and-forth. "I'm not yelling at them," he said. "I'm just yelling."

Carpenter had never been so passionate about an election before, he said, but this year something changed: "I'm over it, is all. I'm over the war and the recession and George Bush and discrimination against gays. I'm over all of it."

-- Gus Garcia-Roberts

Standing in a civilized, orderly voting line isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The downside: There’s no talk-show-style drama to keep you entertained while you wait. Fortunately for Riptide 2.0 -- and the nearly 100 voters at the Miami Beach fire station on Jefferson Avenue around noon -- one poll deputy put a halt to all of that calm efficiency.

At first, something was off. People chatted pleasantly in line, even followed the rules. There was no shouting or arguing, no subtle cultural or political tension. For a second, we wondered: Is this really Miami-Dade?

And so people in line began getting bored. We wished we had brought something to do while we waited, like the ponytailed professor who remembered his crossword puzzle. Or that lucky little kid glued to his Gameboy. Then the God of sociological experiments sent us a little golden nugget of entertainment.

To the left of a bright red fire truck, a wild-eyed, toothless woman sat chewing on a chicken bone, babbling something to herself. Next to her was an empty brown beer bottle. We made note that she was frazzled -- and maybe a little drunk -- but figured she had come stumbling over from Flamingo Park to check out the action.

Then she started hollering, “H through O! H through O!” Chunks of chicken flew from her mouth. “Ya’ll know your last names, don’t you? Get in line! H through O!”

She had an unnecessarily loud, harsh tone of voice, so voters turned to see what all the commotion was about. Was this a schizophrenic woman who thought she was a poll worker? Were these delusions of grandeur?

No, upon closer inspection, we found she was actually -- somehow -- donning an orange vest that read, "Poll Deputy." But how was this possible? we wondered. Voters stood awkwardly in line, not sure how to react.

The scream-babbling got louder -- something about “lunchtime!” and the government being out to get us. Then, loudest of all, to nobody in particular: “Ya’ll gonna vote for the right person?”

“The right person?” a twentysomething in a gray dress whispered to her friend. “She's not supposed to say that."

“What’s wrong with her?” he whispered back.

In line, college kids shot each other looks that said, “Who’s gonna tell her to shut up?” Others laughed as if they had they just stumbled upon a low-budget Theater of the Absurd production. Finally the girl in the gray dress had enough.

Trying to stay poised, she said to the woman: “Listen. This is Miami Beach. We are all chill here. You need to stop yelling, because I will complain. This is a calm, democratic process.” The woman took another bite of her chicken and looked the girl up and down. “I’m eating, mama. Get back in line.” The girl got back in line and rolled her eyes as if to say, “Crazy-ass SoBe.”

--Natalie O'Neill

When news outlets cover any given election, most tend to focus on pro-Republican areas such Little Havana, Coral Gables, and far-flung parts of West Miami-Dade, or heavily Democratic areas such as Cococut Grove and Miami Beach. But what of downtown Miami? In a few short years, its demographic has shifted from lower-middle-class blue-collar workers -- and the occasional homeless person -- to a mishmash of people from all walks of life -- and still the occasional homeless person.

At noon at Precinct 538, located at Unity on the Bay church, the line went down the block as more than 100 people waited patiently to vote. But Francine Steelman, who was talking to them about Amendment 8, assured us the line had been much longer this morning. "I've been here since 7 o'clock, and [the lines] have been long, but it's been pretty quick."

A few blocks down at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, located across from the Omni Building, there was barely a voter to be seen. Same goes for the precinct located at the City of Miami fire station along North Miami Avenue in Wynwood. Stephen, a young man holding a sign a few feet from the station with a phone number for voters to call if they had problems voting, said that in the morning there was a line to vote. Asked how far the line extended, he pointed to about 10 feet from where the line, if there had been one, started. We told him that wasn't much of a line, to which he quipped, "Look around you. Do you see any homes?" Touché.

As we headed back to the office, we bumped into Gertha St. Victor and Natalie Lascano, who were knocking on doors on behalf of the Obama campaign, urging registered voters to get to the polls before they close. "So far I've gotten through to seven of them," St. Victor said as she flipped through her clipboard, "but a lot of them are at work."

"A lot of the apartment buildings are locked too," added Lascano.

-- Jose D. Duran

For anyone familiar with the leafy, lockjawed recesses of Coral Gables, the scene this morning at the historic Coral Gables Golf and Country Club -- the polling place for Precinct 608 -- was hardly a surprise. A drive down the tree-canopied Alhambra Circle, on the way to the country club, has for weeks revealed row after row of McCain/Palin signs. Perhaps the only revelations here were: 1) McCain/Palin lawn signs apparently also come in pink, and 2) the number of Obama signs had drastically increased within the past week. (Perhaps these homeowners will soon find themselves slapped with dubious zoning code citations.)

The scene at the polls reflected Coral Gables itself: pale, khaki-clad, about half-posh-Spanish-speaking, and quiet. And not gladly suffering reporters for salacious rags -- pretty much nobody wanted to talk to me. Not even the lone Obama sign-holder. Burn!

By 6:45 a.m., the line curled around the block at a precinct in downtown Miami Shores, one of the liberal districts that gay activists targeted as likely to vote against the anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution. Steve Hagen was there on behalf of the pro-gay-rights group, Save Dade, handing out flyers.

“One guy said I don’t want any of you people near me,” he reported. “All in all, though, pretty peaceful.”

Before 7 a.m., I sure as hell hope so.

It took me about 1.5 hours to vote. Shores councilman Steve Loffredo was in line. So was a guy named Ed, who arrived at 6:40 and brought a chair because, he said, “I had knee surgery and I figured I’d need to sit down during the wait.” Obama activist Cesar Chacon set up a tent with seats so he could sit down and rest when not politicking for his candidate. “I’ll be here the whole day,” he said. No McCain supporters in sight.

I spent the time in line talking Cuban-American politics with Alex, formerly of the well-regarded Stuck on the Palmetto blog, who was voting in only his second presidential election. Also present: his wife Michelle and his mom Raquel, who was voting for the first time since arriving from Cuba.

Raquel wouldn’t divulge whom she supported -- “secret,” she said -- but Alex said he believes the election will forever change South Florida’s political landscape and will eventually make things very difficult for Raul Castro in Cuba. “Obama and the Democrats will allow more trips and money to families,” he said. “That will hurt Raul in the long run.”

Hallelujah to that!

-- Chuck Strouse

This past Sunday –- the last day for early voting in Florida –- the line at the Kendall Branch Library wrapped around the building and stretched down the street, almost all the way to Kendall Drive. This morning at 7:45, traffic was remarkably subdued. Where were the lawn-parking hordes that had littered the streets with McCain/Palin and Raul Martinez flyers? This morning the library parking lot wasn’t even full, and the line of voters didn’t even extend as far as the sidewalk. Under gray skies and cool breezes, the sign holders and flag wavers were at a blissful minimum. The McCain guy barely muttered a “g’morning” as this New Times reporter walked past him. Ruth Zalph, an elderly Obama campaigner; and Jean Ritter, who held signs and flyers with bold "No On 2" messages on them, were more approachable. Ritter gave eloquent reasons to support her cause, and Zalph could only speak for herself, not for her demographic.

“As far as my age, I find it hard to say who people are voting for. I support Obama for so many reasons: An end to the war in Iraq. A way to improve our status around the world. To stop the outsourcing of jobs. And the deregulation of Wall Street. McCain has voted for all of it, and with Bush all the way. He’s a warrior. That’s in his nature. We don’t need a warrior right now. No justice, no peace. There will never be peace without justice.”

It is Election Day! It's like Christmas morning for political junkies, except they have to wait until nighttime to open their gifts of exit polling and voter breakdown, but there's nothing like a bit of present-shaking and guesstimation.

It is almost eerie how no one is calling it for McCain. He's pretty much DOA, but he still has a decent chance in Florida.

Barack Obama Versus John McCain in Florida:

• Real Clear Politics: Still a tossup, but Obama has a 1.8 percent lead.
  
• 538: Obama has a 1.2 percent advantage in their number-crunching.
  
• Karl Rove is calling it for Obama too. A few people are holding off and saying it might go to McCain, but the advantage Obama has in early voting might be difficult to overcome. Thanks, Charlie.

Congressional Races:

• The Diaz-Balart races could really go either way. It will depend on who actually shows up at the polls, and if enough people who are only showing up to vote for Obama take time to vote a straight ticket down the ballot. I wouldn't be surprised either way.
  
• That said, a lot of people like Joe Garcia's chances.
  
• Sorry, Annette Taddeo, but everyone is pretty sure Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is going to pull this out.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

An exit poll of early voters in Miami-Dade shows that 61 percent voted for Obama, to only 31 percent for McCain, according to Alternet. Matt Drudge reminded us all today that exit polling tends to favor Democrats, but the breakdowns seem about right. 69 percent of Cuban-born voters went to McCain, while 80 percent of Venuzulain-born voters and 70 percent of Nicaraguans cast their ballot for the Republican candidate, as well. Overall, 55 percent of Latinos went for McCain, while 47 percent voted for Obama.

But the poll shows that as the population changes, Miami's Latino population is likely to become more Democratic. 72 percent of U.S.-born Latinos and 70 percent born in other Latin American countries backed Obama.

Alternet also suggests that young Cubans are more likely to vote democratic than their parents and grandparents. Overall in the county, 72 percent of voters under 30 voted Obama, while 64 percent of those age 65 and over voted McCain.

According to pollster Sergio Bendixen:

"People are talking about how the sons and daughters of exiles would vote, and they thought they would be more liberal. But this is first time there has been enough of a sample of Cuban-Americans born in the United States. And it shows them overwhelmingly becoming Democratic. That is the future of Miami's Hispanic community."

--Kyle Munzenrieder

Some very sad election eve news: Barack Obama's grandmother Madelyn Dunham, has died of cancer at age 86. Dunham helped raise Obama and put him through school. She also worked as a vice president at The Bank of Hawaii. Two weeks ago, Obama took time away from the campaign trail to visit her. She might not get to see history made tomorrow, but we're sure she knew she helped play a large part in shaping it.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

Riptide hasn't been shy about saying how dumb Amendment 2 is. Passing it would basically enshrine homophobia in the state constitution and capture a snapshot of bigotry that the Florida electorate might very well regret. Remember: Gay marriage, civil unions, and gay adoption are already illegal in this state. Also remember: A vast majority of Floridians supports civil unions, and there's no question this amendment would make enacting them nearly impossible. It would also surely cause a glut in the judicial system because the vague language might lead to a ban on domestic partnerships that could affect straight couples as well.

Barack Obama and former Sen. and Gov. Bob Graham -- as well as prominent Florida Republicans -- have already come out against the amendment, and now Bill Clinton will be joining them. More than 250,000 Democrats will receive a message from Clinton today reminding them to vote no on 2.

See a full transcript of the call after the cut.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

This just in: A certain sect of Miami Cubans that hangs outside a restaurant called Versailles hates Obama. And they're actually kind of unreasonable about it, calling him an asshole and stuff. This totally shocking news break -- accompanied by photographic evidence compiled at a Saturday mini-protest -- is brought to you by local hip-hop website The Three Oh Five.

-- Gus Garcia-Roberts

Early voting is all the rage, but as of this writing there's only 13 and half hours left to do it. Polls close tonight at 7:00pm. Tomorrow they're open from 9am to 5pm, and on Sunday from 1pm to 5pm. As always, check locations and wait times here. If you miss out, then be sure to get out on Tuesday.

--Kyle Munzenrieder

Yeah, so Matt Damon did the whole get-out-the-vote-for-Obama thing earlier this week. But he did it in West Palm Beach- home of soccer moms and Froodles. It's a whole 'nother thing for a celebrity to traverse galaxies away from the Starbucks-beaten path, and approximately eighteen thousand miles away from the nearest shiatsu parlor or Braman dealership, to Miami's very own 24-hour war zone known as Liberty City. That takes the same dude who willfully braved New Orleans days after Katrina hit: director Spike Lee.

The plan was this: Lee was to arrive at Liberty Square Housing Projects- or as it's commonly known, the "Pork n' Beans"- this morning, pack as many people onto a coach bus as he could fit, and shuttle them to the nearest voting center to cast early ballots.

Only problem: when Riptide arrived this morning at the PJs- a '30s-built barracks-like complex that bears a depressing resemblance to the soul-crushing Baltimore projects shot in The Wire- there were three people sitting on a stoop waiting for Lee. Turns out this event was a well-kept secret in the 'hood. When an Obama campaigner pulled up to prep the site for Lee, he was mildly freaked at this lack of turn-out. Although he sent the three people, all women, off to knock on friends' doors, it seemed unlikely they'd be able to scare up a busload.

Enter (da, da, da!) Ken Knight... also known as a local guy with a '80s-era Toyota Camry stuffed with Obama flyers, and mounted with a megaphone. The Obama campaigner convinced Knight to troll the neighborhood blasting word of the Lee event, and Riptide convinced him to let us ride shotgun.