Disqualified North Miami mayor loses effort to disqualify opponent from ballot

North Miami - NMB admin October 23, 2026 0 Comments

Disqualified North Miami mayor loses effort to disqualify opponent from ballot

Days after North Miami Mayor Alix Desulme was disqualified from the mayoral race in the Nov. 3 election, a judge blocked his effort to have the same done to his opponent over an 80-cent shortchange.

After a nearly 90-minute court hearing Thursday, Judge Beatrice Butchko Sanchez ruled that because Desulme had been disqualified as a candidate, he wasn’t eligible to file a counterclaim asserting that his opponent, George Morgan, didn’t qualify for the election either.

Desulme was disqualified Monday for using two TD Bank cashier’s checks to pay his candidate qualifying fees in August, leaving only Morgan, an engineer by trade, in the mayoral race. The law requires the fees to be paid from a candidate’s campaign account.

Early voting began Monday and mail-in ballots have been sent out. After Monday’s ruling, the Miami-Dade County supervisor of elections advised voters that Morgan was the only candidate in the race, and is therefore considered “elected” by law.

Desulme declined to comment as he left the courtroom Thursday. His attorney, Ben Kuehne, said the outcome is unfair to voters.

“He cannot believe that in a town where he did things right by what the town’s rules are, that he could be thrown off the ballot by somebody who waited 48 days when nobody else could qualify as mayor to say, ‘I want to be the mayor. Forget the vote of the people,’” Kuehne said.

After the judge ruled in his favor on Thursday, Morgan said he wasn’t celebrating, describing the situation as an “unfortunate circumstance.”

“These are errors that could occur, and do,” he said. “Our effort is to serve all the city, and we want to now get up and go forward and do what we have to do for all of North Miami.”

In response to the 80-cent shortage on his check to pay the candidate qualifying fee, he said no one is perfect. After the issue came to attention in another court hearing last week, he wrote a check for 80 cents.

“We want to do the right things, always want to do, and we can make mistakes,” he said. “It’s a question of what we do when we make mistakes. That’s the mark I think of a leader and a man.”

Although voting began before Desulme was disqualified, any votes for him won’t count. Shortly before midnight Monday and about six hours after Butchko Sanchez issued her order disqualifying him, Desulme filed his counterclaim seeking to disqualify Morgan, reopen the qualifying period and have a special election in December.

Morgan’s attorney, Sasha Bardelas, argued that only a candidate can challenge another candidate, and Desulme was no longer one.

Much of Thursday’s courtroom debate centered on whether the judge’s order was in fact final, which would close the case and nullify Desulme’s counterclaim. Butchko Sanchez said when she signed off on it, she believed it was final.

She didn’t wade too deeply into the merits of Desulme’s counterclaim, but told him the time for filing it had passed.

“I think I even suggested that you all need to file a lawsuit,” she said. “You should have done it immediately.”

Kuehne argued he did file the counterclaim in a timely manner. But the judge ruled that Kuehne was at least six hours too late.

After the hearing, North Miami resident Eileen Bicaba, who previously sued three City Council members, believed the ruling was just and that Desulme shouldn’t have been allowed to run this year.

“For me, this is vindication to the voters who were disenfranchised and did not get to vote for the movement of the election…” Bicaba said. “I don’t care how he put himself in there; he served four consecutive years.”

Desulme was appointed mayor in 2022 following the resignation of then-mayor Philippe Bien-Aime. The City Council then opted to push back elections nearly a year-and-a-half to coincide with federal elections.

North Miami mayors are only allowed to serve two consecutive terms; Desulme was elected for the first time as mayor to the city of about 60,000 residents in November 2024.

Kuehne said he would be filing an appeal with a higher court.