Bet this scenario has been played out for years, all over the country… and how hard would it be, really? Walk into a nursing home with a bundle of absentee ballots, walk out with 20 or 30 more votes for your guy. All is fair in love and war?
MIAMI (AP) — A Hialeah woman has been arrested for suspected absentee ballot fraud after authorities say she collected at least 31 ballots under suspicious circumstances.
Prosecutors say 56-year-old Deisy Cabrera turned herself in Thursday at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. She faces a felony absentee ballot fraud charge and two misdemeanor counts of illegally possessing more than two ballots that belong to other voters.
A police affidavit shows that Cabrera was observed collecting ballots from voters and submitting requests for more ballots. Police followed her to several nursing homes and assisted-living facilities. At least one resident was physically incapable of completing an absentee ballot that Cabrera had in her possession.
Several Hialeah residents have said Cabrera filled out their ballots for this election or earlier ones.
The Miami Herald expands on the story:
A Hialeah boletera at the center of a weeklong absentee-ballot investigation that muddied the Miami-Dade mayor’s race was arrested Thursday after police say she fraudulently obtained an absentee ballot from a terminally ill woman in a nursing home.
Deisy Penton de Cabrera, 56, was charged with absentee-ballot fraud, a third-degree felony, and two misdemeanor counts of violating a county ordinance that makes it illegal for anyone to possess more than two ballots belonging to other voters. Investigators say Cabrera illegally collected at least 31 absentee ballots for the Aug. 14 primary election.
Hours after her office made the arrest, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, who is seeking reelection, announced she would recuse herself from any further involvement in the case to avoid a potential conflict of interest with an unnamed person who may be linked to both Cabrera and her campaign.
The arrest quelled some of the speculation in the case, which for a week has roiled Hialeah and the races for Miami-Dade’s state attorney and mayor — though for whom Cabrera was working is still unknown.
Accounts from elected officials and others who have known Cabrera for years indicate she is a small-time ballot broker, known in Spanish as a boletera, based in Hialeah and working for one or more candidate or campaign consultants. Though candidates and political committees are required to disclose what they pay consultants, the way consultants then spend the money is not publicly reported.
So she was well known in the community for what she did. Nice, Miami.
Must be a Democrat. Again, if the powers that be would restrict ballots to those people who are registered to vote then it wouldn’t happen. How did this woman get so many absentee ballots? It was my understanding that you had to request an absentee ballot yourself to get one.
Good question! How can someone just walk around with scads of absentee ballots? Good grief. Business as usual in Miami!
But * blink * blink * there isn’t any evidence that has ever been found of voter fraud * blink * blink * the justice dept said so!
Heh… and why *really* did the AG recuse herself? We may never know, but the whole thing stinks to high heavens…!
Which is why it isn’t enough for Romney to stay even with Obama in the polls, he needs to really pull ahead. Because if we end up with another neck-in-neck race like the Bush-Gore election back in 00, the inevitable voter fraud will likely end up tipping the scales in Obama’s favor.
You’re absolutely correct. Unfortunately.
Recent polls indicate obama has a wide lead but I don’t believe it.
If it’s the poll I’m thinking of, it had a way-above average of Democrats in the polling (twice the typical number).
That’s the one! What they won’t do to skew the numbers…
Since her party was not mentioned you know she is a Democrat – That used to be a red neck part of town – The stock car track couldn’t even survive when they took over – I have trouble comprehending just how much a place can change in a short span of time – it scares the hell out of me with the new government/regime taking over as they have
…except the new regime is on its way out… Don’t believe the polls, believe your gut. Or the Chick-Fil-A poll…
Happy birthday!
Aw, thanks Mark!!!
Ballot fraud? No such thing. Except of course for the massive suppression of minority votes by those Wascally Wepublicans, so says the Attorney General of the United States of America.
Happy birthday to you!
Thanks so much, Peter!
Happy Birthday. I’m sorry you have to share it with Obama.
Thanks! The way I look at it, who knows when his birthday REALLY is?
You mean his whelping date?
Heh heh…