Here's who's running for Miami-Dade's new elections supervisor position – NBC 6 South Florida

Miami-Dade County voters are being asked to elect candidates for offices they have never had to vote on before after approving the 10th Amendment in 2018, which created five new offices, including county sheriff, tax collector and elections supervisor.

Until now, these offices in Miami-Dade were under the authority of the county mayor.

At a time when election integrity is of paramount importance, this newly independently elected election official will assume responsibility for the county's election authority.

Among the Democrats vying for the post is Miami native and former Florida House Representative JC Planas, who was vice chair of the Miami-Dade Citizens Redistricting Advisory Board.

Today he is a professor of election law and government at St. Thomas University. He was a Republican in the Florida House of Representatives and has changed his political affiliation.

“As the new independent election official, public relations will be a key focus because everyone wants transparency, efficiency, fast and accurate results,” Planas said.

Planas is running against two other Democrats, including political consultant Willis Howard, a former Army reservist who served as chief of staff for Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and the city of North Miami Beach.

He said he hopes to give the office a new direction.

“I just understand administrative law and I know that people vote for us like we're politicians. But we're administrators and I think I'm the best administrator to make sure people's votes are counted and they feel safe and secure in the process,” Howard said.

Media entrepreneur Arnie Weis, a Democrat whose family has lived in South Florida since the 1970s, is running after experiencing first-hand how voting discrepancies occurred.

“At the end of March, I got notice from the county that they were removing me from the voter rolls because the notice said I had not voted in the last two elections, which I had,” Weis said. “The investigation that the department was doing prompted me to investigate what was going on, and I found out about the election and said, 'Okay, so who's running?' We had someone who was a career politician on the Republican side of the ballot and someone who had worked as a political consultant in North Miami.”

The winner of Tuesday's primary will face new Miami Republican Rep. Alina Garcia in the November 5 election.

According to the county, residents can expect most services to remain the same, although they may look different under new management.