1997 Miami mayoral election

none January 2025 September 2023 1997 Miami mayoral election Flag of Miami, Florida.svg Miami presidential no 1996 Miami mayoral special election 1996 (special) 2001 Miami mayoral election 2001 November 4, 1997 (first round)November 13, 1997 (runoff) First round Runoff Miami–Dade Commissioner Xavier Suarez, official portrait (3x4).jpg Xavier Suarez c0c0c0 20,60246.8% 23,59853.2% Miami Mayor Joe Carollo official municipal photographic portrait, circa 1996 (3x4 crop).png Joe Carollo c0c0c0 21,85449.6% 20,73946.8% Mayor Joe Carollo Xavier Suarez (invalidated)Joe Carollo The 1997 Miami mayoral election took place on November 4 and November 13, 1997, to elect the mayor of Miami, Florida. It is notable for being overturned due to electoral fraud. In the first round, incumbent Joe Carollo won 51.4% of ballots cast at the polls, while his main opponent, former Mayor Xavier Suarez, won 61.5% of absentee ballots. In total, Suarez had a slim 155-vote lead. Since no candidate received a majority, a runoff election was held, which Suarez won. Carollo challenged the results of the first round, claiming that absentee ballot fraud had denied him the majority needed to win without a runoff.An Analysis of Voter Fraud in The United States 2003 Lorraine Minnite https://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/Analysis.pdf 2024-09-07 An investigation found that nearly 400 absentee ballots had been fraudulently cast, including by felons and dead people.Lee Kurtis Here's how voter fraud once tipped an election Los Angeles Times 2017-01-25 https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-voter-fraud-20170125-story.html 2024-09-07 https://archive.today/20240907004530/https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-voter-fraud-20170125-story.html 2024-09-07 Former Mayor Wins an Upset In Miami Ballot The New York Times 1997-11-14 https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/14/us/former-mayor-wins-an-upset-in-miami-ballot.html 2024-09-07 United States circuit court judge Thomas S. Wilson Jr. threw out the results in the spring of 1998. He cited "a pattern of fraudulent, intentional and criminal conduct" in the casting of absentee ballots and wrote that "this scheme to defraud, literally and figuratively, stole the ballot from the hands of every honest voter in the city of Miami". Wilson ruled that there was no evidence Suarez had known about the fraud. He ordered a new election, but a federal appeals court instead declared Carollo the winner outright.Navarro Mireya Fraud Ruling Invalidates Miami Mayoral Election The New York Times 1998-03-05 https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/05/us/fraud-ruling-invalidates-miami-mayoral-election.html 2024-07-19 https://archive.today/20221208015859/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/05/us/fraud-ruling-invalidates-miami-mayoral-election.html 2022-12-08 First round results First round resultsDade Results https://www.newspapers.com/image/641852268 Newspapers.com subscription The Miami Herald October 30, 2025 1B November 5, 1997 Joe Carollo (incumbent) Nonpartisan candidate 21854 49.6 Xavier Suarez Nonpartisan candidate 20602 46.8 Post Nonpartisan candidate 747 1.7 Merker Nonpartisan candidate 616 1.4 Perez Nonpartisan candidate 198 0.4 Runoff results Runoff resultsDade Results https://www.newspapers.com/image/641870721 Newspapers.com subscription The Miami Herald October 30, 2025 20A November 14, 1997 Xavier Suarez votes invalidated Nonpartisan candidate 25,598 53.2 Joe Carollo (incumbent) Nonpartisan candidate 20,839 46.8 Aftermath Carollo would lose re-election in the 2001 election, in which Suarez was also an unsuccessful candidate. The two again faced each other for Miami mayor a third time in the 2025 Miami mayoral election, in which they were both unsuccessful contenders in a thirteen-candidate field. References 1997 Category:1997 United States mayoral elections Category:1997 Florida elections Mayoral election, 1997 Category:Electoral fraud in the United States