Well, do we all feel better now?
I’ll bet some boleteras, at least, are breathing a sigh of relief as county commissioners pat themselves on the back over their successful vote today to provide pre-paid return postage on absentee ballots for countywide elections.
And I’m sure some cities will probably follow suit in their fanciful, farcical facade of a reform action and provide return postage for their municipal elections.
But the politicians and their machinery know that this won’t really do much to curtail AB fraud, which is far more widespread and rampant than even the latest arrests in Hialeah have shown. Even Commissioner Esteban “Stevie el Bobo” Bovo, who suggested the measure after his secretary was caught collecting absentee ballots for his pals in his Hialeah district office.
Yeah, I know. Such an obvious deflection of guilt you would think everyone would catch on to it. But even though Commissioner Barbara Jordan had originally blasted Bobito for his blatant opportunism providing a false sense of security in a cottage industry he is very much a part of, she must have changed her mind. Because, according to people who were there, it was approved with a unanimous vote (all save for Commission Chairman Joe Martinez and Commissioner Lynda Bell, who were not at the dais for the vote).
Bovo has a lot to gain from this. His secretary, Anamary Pedrosa, was caught with 164 ballots she said boleteros brought to her at the commissioner’s district office because they trusted her. She has also been named as a boletera herself by others and was paid $2,000 by Bovo in his ridiculously unnecessary 2011 recall commission campaign.
Yet, Bovo has not been implicated in the case — everyone keeps telling us that. The newspaper, the state attorney. Why is it they are so unbelievable? Because, even if he is not implicated in the case — which he most surely is — anyone with dos dedos de frente would imagine that prosecutors or investigators would want to talk to him about Pedrosa. Just talk to him. But they say they don’t. Which means they want more. He’s a person of interest.
Bovo admitted the measure does not “eliminate all the fraud” — in a statement in which he seems to admit there is fraud. “But there’s a chance for us now to give, first, peace of mind to the voter that requests the absentee ballot.”
And Ladra can’t help but practically fall down laughing at the thought of the parade of AB pirates that urged the commission to pass this: Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi, Hialeah Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez and Hialeah Councilman Paul “Pablito” Hernandez. Really? Really? The same Castro Hernandez who lent known boletera Emelina Llanes his SUV to pick up ballots for him in the November 2011 election?
Man, I really wish I had been there. Going to have to be there more often.
Jordan, who seemed only to oppose Bovo’s silliness if it would take funds out of other elections operations, buckled apparently after Mayor Carlos “Not So Golden Boy” Gimenez said he would find the $170,000 with or without a commission vote to make the prepaid postage happen. He’s another one that benefits from the public perception that they actually did something when they did nothing at all.
She was right, however, to call the move a “Band-Aid” because it doesn’t stop the system, which is corrupt at the core and relies on a network of people who pull favors for seniors who then give them their ballots — some of the time blank.
“It’s not about the stamp. It’s about the person and the relationships,” Jordan said. “Providing a stamp is not going to stop that.”
No, but it will make a bunch of politicians look like they’re doing something to stop that. Don’t be fooled people. Don’t be lulled into thinking this makes a difference.
More must be done to stop the AB fraud that has become big business in Miami-Dade County.
El Bobo Bovo’s silly Band-Aid image measure passes added by Ladra on
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