Miami registers few queues and has a controlled flow of voters to avoid agglomeration

After a first round marked by lines and agglomerations, the second round of the Brazilian presidential elections in Miami was quiet. The more friendly atmosphere resulted from the strengthening of the organization and the change in the flow of voters to avoid the riots of October 2nd.

“In the first round, the organization team was in and now it’s out. We adopted a flow control strategy. We created a seal to identify who had already voted and changed the exit”, said José Renato, deputy consul at the Consulate General of Miami .

In addition to the “I voted” sticker, delivered along with the voting receipt, there was the orientation not to let people stay in the aisles between sections, especially taking selfies. “Voted, out,” confirmed one of the secretaries who was working in the R building on the Kendall campus of Miami Dade College.

The lobby between buildings 9 and R also saw a much lower flow of voters. Part of the space was occupied by the organization, which intensified signage and the number of volunteers and installed a long blue table to serve those present. Audible warnings were also part of the strategy to try to dissipate people. One of the messages announced was “please come home”.

The effort for a better flow was noticed by voters, who did not complain about queues or the lack of orientation. “Today I didn’t even take three minutes to vote, while in the first round I was in line for more than 40 minutes,” said lawyer José Mario, who traveled 80 kilometers to vote.

Although there was “no fuss of the first round”, the miner claimed to have been “assaulted” in the voting room. “There came a guy in green and yellow who was notably drunk and said to me ‘this guy is bearded, so he’s PT’. This is absurd.”

The lawyer, who did not reveal his vote, said the section president did not want to create a case. “I have lived in the United States for 29 years and I have never stopped voting. I came today to exercise my citizenship and because I know that every vote counts.”

The carioca Cristiani Perry also evaluated the atmosphere as calmer in relation to the first round. Elector of Soraya Thronicke, of União Brasil, in the first round, today she voted for President Jair Bolsonaro, but with reservations.

“It’s a vote against socialism. When people arrive here and see Venezuelans, Cubans and Colombians, the fear of socialism increases.” According to the voter, Bolsonaro leaves something to be desired in terms of the environment and racism. “I think we could have better candidates than him and that the [ex-presidente] Squid.”

Entrepreneur James Deus was one of the few who wore red amid the prevailing green-yellow stream. “I voted for Bolsonaro 22. The color does not represent anything in the same way that those who vote for the PT have the right to wear yellow,” he said. While talking to the reporter, the businessman was approached by a woman wearing the Brazil shirt asking if he had voted for Lula.

Pedagogue Maria Graham traveled from West Palm Beach, 140 kilometers from Miami, to vote for the first time in 29 years living in the United States. Without declaring her vote, she said she was motivated by the truth. “Every vote counts. I came for the issue of politicking in Brazil, for not using funds correctly, for justice and, above all, for the truth, we need to stop fake news.”

Wearing red, bank clerk Antonio Cairrao, was the only declared Lula voter heard by the report. According to him, the choice of color was not intentional, but he said he had not suffered any kind of retaliation.

“It’s quiet here, but I’m afraid for Brazil. This election exacerbated the worst we have. I told my children who are in São Paulo to vote and keep quiet”, said the paulista, who has lived in the United States and says he is frightened by the situation in Brazil.

“That from yesterday with the [deputada federal Carla] Zambelli did not exist in the country where I lived. The challenge is to combat the rise of hatred and intolerance. We’ll have to learn to deal with it,” he said, referring to this Saturday’s episode (29), in which the parliamentarian pointed a gun at a man after, according to her, being called a prostitute and other prostitutes.

Taking pictures with the Brazilian flag, Maria Inês Araújo, from São Paulo, who has lived in the United States for 17 years, said she was confident in the victory of the current president, despite judging that he had been harmed by the “rotten and wormy” press and the STF.

“There was the ‘radiolão’ in the Northeast and North against Bolsonaro; he can no longer recover those votes. He is alone, he only has the people in his favor”, he said in reference to the president’s campaign accusations that some radio stations in the country did not broadcast their election programmes.

With a predominance of voters wearing green and yellow, Florida reaffirms itself as a Bolsonarista stronghold in the United States. In the first round, 74.26% of the votes went to Bolsonaro, while Lula registered 16.2%.

With two polling places in the state, Miami and Orlando, the turnout rate was 40.2%, registering the presence of 16,100 voters out of the 40,100 registered. Florida is the largest electoral college in Brazil in the United States. In total, the country has more than 180,000 Brazilians eligible to vote.