Jesse Scheckner
Digital media entrepreneur Arnold “Arnie” Weiss thinks the other three candidates running for Miami-Dade Supervisor of Elections (SOE) don’t have the technical know-how to improve the county’s voting processes.
But he does, he said, and that’s why he’s seeking the job.
Weiss, a Democrat whose work developing digital distribution solutions and user experiences saw him work for both government and private organizations, filed to run for SOE late last month.
He officially launched his campaign Friday.
“Voters in this county deserve a Supervisor who will actually have a plan for how they will improve the department along with a track record of delivering results,” Weiss said in a statement.
“Frankly, I did not see where any of the candidates who have entered this race have any of the prerequisite experience necessary to do the work at hand and that is why I have decided to run for Supervisor of Elections in Miami-Dade County in 2024.”
A longtime Miami-Dade resident now living in Miami, Weiss graduated from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, where he studied producing for electronic media. His more than 25-year career included work for movie studios, digital properties, government agencies and several broadcast networks, including ABC, ESPN and CBS.
A press release from Weiss’ campaign said he has “taken on the county” twice about election matters. The first time, he said, was over the use of touch-screen voting in 2004, when he sued the county to require a paper record of ballots and improve accommodations for older voters who had trouble using the new technology.
More recently, the county notified him that he faced removal from its voter rolls for not voting — an issue the Florida Democratic Party has been sounding the alarm about following the passage of new election laws.
Weiss said that the office of the county’s currently appointed SOE, Christina White, “was very responsive” to his concerns about maintaining his active voter status. But it also took several days and an “exhaustive investigation” by the Department for the issue — which was due to “errors by the Post Office,” he said — to be rectified.
“It is clear we must improve the back-end processes to ensure that the information that the department provides to voters is accurate and that is just one of the jobs of the Supervisor, which neither of my (Primary) opponents are qualified to do,” he said.
Weiss said he’s “already created a detailed technical product and project roadmap” for the Miami-Dade Elections Department to make voting more accessible to everyone legally allowed to vote. It includes:
— Allowing voters to cast ballots at any precinct in the county on Election Day, the same as the county does currently for early voting.
— Eliminating issues that prevent the Department from getting citizens the information necessary to restore their voting rights.
— Updating the Department’s technology to secure precinct-level and mail-in voting, speed up processing time at polling places, retain images of ballots made by tabulators and ensure that the people voting by mail are registered voters.
— Using text and email messaging to contact residents if they’re at risk of being removed from the voter rolls, rather than the current system in which the Department relies solely on the postal system.
Weiss is set to face political consultant Willis Howard and former Rep. Juan Carlos “J.C.” Planas in an Aug. 20 Democratic Primary.
The winner will compete in the Nov. 5 General Election against Miami Rep. Alina García, who now has a clear path in the Republican Primary after two GOP opponents dropped out.
Miami-Dade voters abolished several constitutional officers — including SOE, Tax Collector and Property Appraiser — through the 1957 adoption of the county’s Home Rule Charter, which delegated their power to the Miami-Dade’s top executive official, now the county Mayor, who now appoints people to those positions.
But in 2018, Florida voters — including 58% of Miami-Dade voters — approved a constitutional amendment requiring every county in the state to elect those officers, as well as a Sheriff, by Jan. 7, 2025.
White confirmed last June that she would not seek election to the office she’s held by appointment since 2015.
