Vote drives gear up to beat deadline

Camila Ruiz has spent so much time trying to register voters since she moved to Miami from California five months ago that she hasn't yet registered herself.

She has until Monday night -- as does anyone else who wants to vote in the November election.

So while she's coordinating today's voter-registration events for the Cuban-American National Foundation, Ruiz will fill out a form that will allow her to vote for President Bush in November.

''I will be the first person to register tomorrow,'' Ruiz, CANF's director of government relations, said Friday.

''For the Cuban-American community it's very relevant because family back in Cuba don't have the right to vote,'' she said.

The foundation is signing up voters today at Versailles restaurant on Southwest Eighth Street, and La Carreta in Hialeah -- just two of at least 50 voter-registration events being held across Miami-Dade County this weekend. A list of events can be found at http://elections.co.miami-dade.fl.us/

Florida residents have until midnight on Monday to register for the November election -- an election that will decide not only the next president, but also the next mayor of Miami-Dade County, two Broward County commissioners and a U.S. senator.

The ballot will also have a variety of statewide measures on parental notice of abortions, slot machines for Broward and Miami-Dade counties, the minimum wage, bullet train and medical malpractice.

Miami-Dade residents will vote on a state attorney and several bond measures to pay for new museums, better roads and other local projects.

A record 1,024,604 Miami-Dade residents are registered to vote, including 123,000 new voters who signed up this year alone, said Seth Kaplan, Elections Department spokesman.

''We're busy, but happy that there is so much interest,'' he said.