Ousted Mayor Seeks to Regain Office

Ousted Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez launched a legal campaign to regain and strengthen the mayoral office he lost in a judicial vote fraud ruling. Suarez sought a rehearing by all 11 judges at Florida’s 3rd District Court of Appeal. A three-judge panel of the court ordered him out of office last week. Suarez said the court erred in rejecting nearly 5,000 absentee ballots cast in the city’s Nov. 4 vote and should instead have called a new election. Incumbent Mayor Joe Carollo received 51.4% of the votes cast at the polls, but Suarez won enough absentee ballots to force a runoff he won.