How can we educate the public? Would you consider doing an oped. It would help. Or a letter to the editor?
Or can we alter the law somehow? Maybe Ms. Townsley you, or Commissioner Sosa, can address the issue.
I wrote this on my blog August 1st (see below) and questioned, where are all the affidavits?? Maybe 12-14 need more clarity. The two ballots is misleading to even Rundle's office and certainly in the press.
The caveats are very strict but they are never mentioned. Maybe the law need to read:
"PICK UP NO BALLOTS unless an affidavit is produced"
Now is the time to make the change while the iron is hot. Someone should propose it in the press. I was hoping one of you would.
From my blog post of August 1st:
Besides adding a penalty to the code last December, the county commission added this important language:
"A designee may retrieve, pick up and/or return (whether by hand, by mail or by any other method) 2 no more than two (2) absentee ballots other than his or her own per election, only one (1) of which may be for an elector not of the designee's immediate family."
The code further states:
"The designee must complete an affidavit that states that the designee is authorized by the elector to retrieve and/or return the elector's ballot and shall indicate his or her relationship to the elector, if any."
My fear is that the newspaper reporters and Rundle are misleading ballot brokers by saying others can pick up two ballots. Well you can't just go out and 'pick up two ballots' as they are saying. You need an affidavit to pick up a ballot.The way it is working now, the ballot brokers aren't bringing them to the Elections Department, they are just stuffing them in mailboxes bypassing the Affidavit requirement. It isn't working folks. The law isn't clear enough. The voter should have to sign the Affidavit so the ballot broker would have to have it in hand with the ballot. Otherwise the broker caught red-handed could lie and say she/he is going to write it later.
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| These are photos of a mailbox in Hialeah, near Hialeah racetrack, taken November 10th 2011. Now make believe you are a voter. Would you deposit your absentee ballot in a full mailbox? Would you deposit ANY mail in a mailbox this full? Had to a be a ballot broker drop. |
13 comments:
The affidavit is SO important to have -- we can't have our government/legal system representatives misleading the public, because the next thing you know, that will be a defense presented to a Jury.
The affidavid requirement sucks. The voter doesn't have to sign it. What good is it? They shouldn't let ANYONE pick up ballots. They should send a team from elections or let people mail them postage free.
I read the code you supplied. It makes little sense because how is elections to know if they picked up or not. That would only occur if they were bringing them to the elections department, and as the investigators said, they are bringing them to the post office. This law needs to be fixed.
Does the voter have to sign the affidavits?
The affidavits are a joke. No one should be picking up absentee ballots period.
Maybe they have to give the affidavit to elections BEFORE they pick up the ballot. If they have to pick up, that would work for me.
I personally hate the whole idea of absentee ballots.
Ballot brokers will limit themselves to two ballots and never get arrested. The law has to be clearer.
The ballot brokers will change. They will be going to the post office more often. Every time they have two ballots. Commissioner Sosa: fix it. We will never have another arrest otherwise.
Does she have to pay $1,000 for each ballot. That would be $33,000.
How about this, they can only collect the one ballot from a non relative during early voting and on election day. They deliver the affidavit first then they go get the ballot.
I wonder how deep the ab's go into that box?
I think a point is being missed in all of this and that is voter competency. ZG who according to detectives appeared catatonic is sent an absentee ballot. That alone allowed Deisy to step in and it was ultimately fraudulently filled out and signed.
One more thing, they caught her with 31, only 31 from a professional absentee ballot provider. Somewhere there is a list with a lot of elderly and disabled names on it. Find that list and they can say case closed.
Some years go, before the requirements for an absentee ballot were changed, ballots had to be signed by the voter and by two witnesses. How many people would witness a fraudulent ballot knowing that they could get into mega trouble if there is a problem with the ballot and it is discovered that they witnessed the fraud?
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