Federal prosecutors reviewing altered election documents tied to Florida Democrats

[Jose Garcia]

Source: Politico

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Department of State last week asked federal prosecutors to investigate dates that were changed on official state election documents, the first voting “irregularities” it has flagged in the wake of the 2018 elections.

The concerns, which the department says can be tied to the Florida Democratic Party, center around date changes on forms used to fix vote-by-mail ballots sent with incorrect or missing information. Known as “cure affidavits,” those documents used to fix mail ballots were due no later than 5 p.m. on Nov. 5 — the day before the election. But affidavits released on Tuesday by the DOS show that documents from four different counties said the ballots could be returned by 5 p.m. on Thursday, which is not accurate.

Among those counties is Broward, which emerged as the epicenter of controversy as three statewide races and three local legislative races went into recounts following the Nov. 6 elections. Republicans have pointed to embattled Broward Elections chief Brenda Snipes' record of past election gaffes in arguing that the largely Democratic country is tilted against them — perhaps fraudulently so.

DOS officials have repeatedly told the media that the monitors they sent to Broward County saw no election fraud. It wasn't until Tuesday that the office revealed publicly that it had turned over information to federal prosecutors.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2018/11/13/federal-prosecutors-reviewing-altered-election-documents-tied-to-florida-democrats-695299

[INdemo]

1. This is total bullshit

All that has to happen is a Republican forge the dates and wham...its clearly suspicious

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

4. +1

[LuvLoogie]

2. Couldn't that work as sabotage?

Telling someone they had more time than they actually had.

[Botany]

3. Sure it is the democrats fault / coming to Fox News tonight

Absentee ballots that were sent out too late so that people could vote and
mail them back in and have that ballot counted.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211416264

NY Times:
People voted for Governor but skipped voting for senator.
Ballot design in Broward County is one possible cause of votes cast for one contest but apparently not another.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/09/upshot/florida-senate-race-broward-undercount.html

[Raven123]

5. Embarrassing

The article reads like a "Who's on First " comedy. I can't tell who did what. Unfortunately this is not funny. Voters deserve a simple electoral process that is conducted competently. Florida may not be the only state where this is an issue, but sure stands out as an embarrassment to democracy

[blue-wave]

6. I smell bullshit

This is the republicons attempting to tie up ballot counting so tight that all the votes never get counted and they "win" through stealing.


Reminds me of a song:

[louis c]

7. It is bullshit.

I certainly wonder why DU has given this bullshit story so much prominence.

[4du]

8. The news stories do not point out

The person in charge in Broward was appointed by a Republican (Jeb Bush) and could have been removed and replaced at any time over the last 16 years by the governor. During this whole time period, the governor was a Republican, including 8 years under SCOTT, who is now claiming fraud in that office.

[onenote]

9. Wasn't she repeatedly elected following her initial appointment?

[Jose Garcia]

12. She has been elected 4 times as a Democrat in heavily Democratic

Broward County.

[4du]

13. I am not from FL, but my impression was

she did not have to stand for election. I think it was an appointed office that a person held at the pressure of the governor. She could have been removed by Scott whenever he wanted.

[lark]

14. No, it's more complicataed than that.

SOE can be removed by the governor for incompetence and Jeb removed the former Broward sOE and appointed Spike, who was a Republican. Since then she's run for office and has won. I'm not sure if SOE is a partisan office, can't remember for sure if D's and R's were behind the names in that race? nd yes, you are right, Scott could have removed her but didn't because she went along with getting the oldest machines and not nearly enough of them, so he liked her suppression efforts.

Besides, emails were accepted from the very red part of FL hit by the hurricane. Emails are NEVER acceptable as voting mechanisms in this state. I understand the polling places weren't there, but why couldn't they be sent absentee ballots like tens of thousands of other folks. What was done is patently illegal;. If the people in Broward County have their votes deleted for a mis=print (sent by state of FL to that district?) then emails definitely need to be disallowed as well.

[onenote]

15. You are mistaken. She was elected and re-elected several times.

Most recently in 2016. Here is a link. https://www.browardsoe.org/Election-Information/Election-Results-Copy

If you click on the link for the 2016 General Election and scroll down, you will find that she won reelection in 2016 with almost 97 percent of the vote. She also easily defeated a Democratic primary opponent that year.

[KCDebbie]

10. Cynic that I am, I read this entire article as saying:

Republican operatives found a way to access and altering ballots, all while diverting suspicion to their opponents...

I wonder what page of the Republican Dirty Tricks Book this was taken from?

[Hugin]

11. The GOP: Disenfranchising Americans since 1854.