Election Fraud Exists: Even on a large scale

Miami has a voter fraud problem. 

Miami voters are very familiar with this problem. The rest of the country probably doesn't know anything beyond what happened in Election 2000. But Election Fraud does happen. A short discussion on the history of voter fraud in South Florida and how fraud is permeating our elections even at the national level today.



South Florida is ground zero for Election Fraud strategies. Why?

Miami Civics Presentation and Resource Guide

The first OGM Civics Presentation was just completed this past weekend. It was a great event. We're planning another event soon. Stay tuned for the announcement.

In the meanwhile, check out the Miami Civics Presentation and Resource Guide below:

Further Response to the North Miami Election

The former North Miami Mayor Kevin Burns lost in a run-off election to Lucie Tondreau earlier this month is a way that was incredible and somewhat unbelievable at least from a political science stand point. It doesn't matter if Tondreau herself was involved in a voter fraud scheme but the numbers show that something strange occurred to generate the vote totals we saw.

Burns is now suing to have Tondreau removed as mayor not because of voter fraud but because Tondreau didn't live in North Miami at least a year in order to establish the proper residency requirement. It is the first time to candidates challenged on the basis of their residency.

However, voter fraud is a perennial issue in Miami-Dade County. It is an issue that cannot be ignored even though for Kevin Burns it is expedient to bypass.

I write more why voter fraud in North Miami is a bigger problem people in the city must confront or accept that this will be a regular part of their elections from now on:

Kudos to Kevin Burns for going after residency, but he shouldn’t have punted on Voter Fraud

Investigating voter fraud is simple to do in concept but difficult to accomplish. First off, you need people who know who to ask the right questions of just to figure exactly what happened during the election. Next, you need to figure if anything that you know happened was illegal and then determine whether or not it was enough to change the results of the election. Determining if fraud was committed, who did it and why is a daunting task (unless Lucie Tondreau herself was directly involved that is). Adding to the difficulty is that in North Miami, Lucie Tondreau won with more than 800 votes so figuring out how 800 people committed voter fraud is very challenging. 

This is why Kevin Burns is challenging the results of the election by going after the matter regarding Lucie Tondreau’s residency... 

Read more at: http://www.votersopinion.com/?p=9969

The Voter Fraud Story You Haven't Heard

Voter fraud has been in the news with scandal from the campaign of now-Congressman Joe Garcia and just yesterday the same fraud committed by campaign aides of City of Miami Commissioner Francis X. Suarez who is vying for the Mayor's seat this November.

Real voter fraud is much more organized and conspiratorial then the Internet schemes of these two related voter fraud scandals. Real voter fraud stories are rarely ever heard about because the fraudsters completely got away with it.

Voter fraud usually comes in 5 ways:

1. Voter Registration Fraud
2. Absentee Ballot Fraud
3. Illegally or Improperly "Assisting" Others to Vote their Absentee Ballot
4. Vote-Buying
5. Hacking Voter Machine or Vote Counting Database

There are few thoughts to figure out which kind of fraud happened and who perpetrated it:

1. Voter Registration Fraud usually occurs by "changes of address" schemes to register voters who live outside the voting district to participate in the election (such as out-of-towners, homeless, public employees, etc.. The real residence of these voters can be proven by real estate tax searches, corporation records and other easily accessible public databases.
2. Absentee Ballot Fraud usually occurs in several ways such as casting absentee ballots stolen from mailboxes and requesting absentee ballots without permission (with or without an improper change of address). Rumors can indicate this happening and so can any reports made to authorities. Since this type of fraud is done in combination with voter registration fraud and "change of address" schemes then it can be detected in the same way.
3. Illegally or Improperly "Assisting" Others to Vote their Absentee Ballot occurs regularly when absentee ballots are cast by the infirm, incapacitated and elderly who cannot vote by themselves (or otherwise protest their ballots being marked without permission). Rumor can offer details regarding how and who ran this scheme. Analysis of voting patterns can point groupings of voters residing in institutions such as group homes or assisted living facilities that can further investigation.
4. Vote-buying is popular because it is cheap and done during Election Day or Early Voting that drives droves of registered voters by bus to a voting location in exchange for $10-$20 (i.e. $2,000 for 200 votes). The only way to know if this happens is when people speak about it happening (word of mouth). Rumors will offer names of those organizing this scheme. Details will offer clues that can establish who were paid to vote against the list of voters who cast ballots. Analysis of voting patterns among lower quality (lower propensity) voters can indicate this scheme from happening.
5. Hacking Voter Machine or Vote Counting Database is rarely done except in tight elections or else it will be detected by voter polling prior to the election but most especially by exit polling. On rare occasion, the reporting of election results can be so compromised that vote tallies can be completely switched out. This type of fraud involves people who have access within the chain of custody involving ballots, electronic voting machines and the voter count database (which means election volunteers, staff and the third-party vendors involved).

Usually you can only detect the type of fraud being committed well after the election is over and certified and the voter history is made available publicly. However, if you are aware of how to rig elections you can catch it in the midst of it happening or just warn voters of this happening.

Rumors, gossip and even campaign finance reports can help you pin-point the type of fraud and using voter history to determine particular voting patterns that occur in each type of voter fraud.  

We can also narrow the suspects by knowing who are the local ballot brokers and the usual suspects for voter fraud. We can also figure out who these people are who committed fraud by reviewing who stands out in the campaign finance report as well as identifying any PACs or third-party groups such as religious, civic or governmental organizations (like CRA or a Development Authority) associated with them.

Keep tuned in to this blog and I will share more info about voter fraud specifically how it gets done and how to stop it.

Something funny happened in North Miami @ Votersopinion.com

I wrote an interesting piece about potential voter fraud in the recent City of North Miami Election. It is a story of ups and downs, colorful personalities and impossible vote totals. You have to read it to believe it.

Thanks to Stephanie Kienzle at Votersopinion.com for publishing my post. She is holding a magnifying glass on North Miami and North Miami Beach politics and is a partner in revealing how to make government "OPEN".

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Yes, this has to do with mayoral contest in North Miami. No, it is not another post about “Coco Douce” or about the devil hexing candidates for mayor. 

This other story has to do with the victory of Lucie Tondreau, the recently sworn in mayor of North Miami, over the former mayor Kevin Burns. The North Miami election was very busy with the mayor and 2 city council seats having to go to a run-off election. Ms. Tondreau was swept into office with 833 votes (about an 11% margin). This margin for victory has never been seen before in North Miami politics. 

Maybe Lucie Tondreau is that popular. Maybe North Miami voters really wanted something different than Kevin Burns. Maybe this was just great timing. But something was troubling me about the results and it was mainly this: 

Burns had a near 400 vote (over 5%) advantage to Tondreau after the regular election. How did Tondreau manage to pull off a swing of more than 1,200 votes in her favor to defeat a popular, former mayor?

Read more at: http://www.votersopinion.com/?p=9893