Shlomo Danzinger, who lost the Miami-Dade mayoral election last month, filed a formal complaint alleging that incumbent Mayor Daniella Levine Cava manipulated ballot name placement, violating Florida election laws, and is seeking to void the results.
Shlomo Danzinger, a losing candidate in last month’s Miami-Dade mayoral election, filed a formal complaint on Monday contesting the results of the election.
The complaint, lodged in the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County, seeks to void the election results, claiming that incumbent Mayor Daniella Levine Cava gained an unfair advantage by manipulating her name’s placement on the ballot.
Levine Cava won the nonpartisan election with 57.9 percent of the vote, securing 163,597 ballots cast in her favor. Danzinger, who finished behind Levine Cava with 1.8 percent support — or 5,300 votes, alleges that her victory was improperly influenced by the filing of two separate Candidate Oaths, which he claims led to her name being listed first on the ballot—a position he argues provided her with an advantage.
According to the complaint, Levine Cava initially submitted a Candidate Oath on the morning of May 23, 2024, listing her name as “Daniella Levine Cava,” and checked the box indicating she had two last names without a hyphen. Later that day, she filed a second oath, this time leaving the box unchecked, resulting in her name appearing on the ballot as “Cava,” rather than “Levine Cava,” which placed her name at the top of the seven candidates listed.
Danzinger contends that the action violates several Florida election statutes which require candidates to use their legal surname on the ballot. He further argues that separate Florida law mandates candidates be listed alphabetically by their last name, and that Levine Cava’s modification allowed her to be listed first, contrary to the required alphabetical order.
Danzinger also claims that by submitting conflicting candidate oaths, Levine Cava committed perjury. In the complaint, he points to her past filings, including those from the 2020 mayoral election, where she consistently used “Levine Cava” as her last name.
This is not the first time Danzinger has sought legal recourse. On August 19, he filed a motion for an emergency restraining order to block the election, arguing that Levine Cava’s actions had compromised the integrity of the race. The court declined to issue the restraining order, ruling that the case was filed too close to Election Day for any meaningful relief.
In his latest complaint, Danzinger is asking the court to void the results of the August 20 election and declare Levine Cava ineligible to serve as mayor. He also requests that a new election be held on November 5, 2024, with the remaining qualified candidates listed in the correct alphabetical order.
0 Comments