More than 190,000 absentee ballots will be mailed today to voters in Miami-Dade County for the Nov. 5 question on the 
public financing of Jackson Health System’s modernization, which is being pushed by the same team of campaign consultants, more or less, who got Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez re-elected and got last year’s school bond passed (more on that later).
Voters in the cities of Hialeah, Homestead, Miami, and Miami Beach will also have municipal elections on their ballots and so “the AB chase,” as they call it, is on.
The bulk of municipal absentees go to Miami and Hialeah, with 25,603 and 20,109 mailed out to voters in each city, respectively. Miami Beach has 6,385 and Homestead has 2,528 ABs hitting mailboxes in the next two days.
Those ballots are expected to arrive in mailboxes on Wednesday and Thursday — sandwiched between all the glossy campaign ads that either tell voters what a wonderful person Candidate A is or what a horrible scumbag Candidate B is.
The Miami-Dade Elections Department provides a list of absentee voters to campaigns, which use them for targeted phone banks and mail pieces. Some candidates, or, rather, their campaign consultants, are better at the AB chase than others. Some cut corners and commit fraud. Some are unethical and others are plain criminal. We have all heard of votes being bought for $10 in Overtown and boleteras casting and signing for incapacitated or comatose voters in Hialeah (and then getting off scot-free).
Our electeds believe that by making postage unnecessary, as they did last year, it addresses the issue. And it might make a dent, but it won’t stop the professionals who count on producing ABs for their fees from doing so.
In Hialeah, that would include Absentee Ballot Queen Sasha Tirador, who is running the campaign for Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez and his two Seguro Que Yes Councilmates Luis Gonzalez and Paul “Pabliquitico” Hernandez, no relation to the mayor (other than yesman). Tirador is a veteran of AB wars and was investigated by the State Attorney’s Office for her role in AB fraud that was likely committed during the 2008 Congressional race between former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez and former Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart. Prosecutors found reason to believe fraud was committed — including indication of votes that had been changed — but were unable to press charges because it would be difficult to prove in court who made those changes.
Ladra is quite certain that Tirador has other strategies, besides the “let me take it so I can put a stamp on it and mail it for you” scam. There is all the public housing that is controlled by Hialeah Housing Authority Director Julio Ponce, who had a PAC supporting the mayor in the last election in 2011. There are still all the assisted living facilities where “runners” pick up ballots from the caretakers. There are other tricks up Tirador’s colorful sleeve.
But former Hialeah Mayor Julio “The Other” Martinez , who has challenged Hernandez and is the best chance we have, told Ladra he is not so scared of the AB machinery this time around.
“There has been so much activity to curtail that with the police,” Martinez said, referring to multiple AB fraud investigations, including three people implicated in Hialeah last year. “And I think Carlos and the rest of them are scared to death that they will wind up in jail if the do what they did two years ago,” he added, referring to how Tirador bussed to the polls dozens of elderly voters in diapers who didn’t know what day it was, let alone who they were voting for.
But he ain’t taking any chances. Martinez plans to send out robocalls this week reminding people of the potential for fraud. “We’re just telling them not to give their ballot to anyone. To put it in their mailbox,” he told me.
And while he is no Tirador, las malas lenguas say that a Florida City man named Tim Melton collects the absentee ballots for candidates in Homestead. Melton, who also worked for State Sen. Dwight Bullard (D-South Dade) and State Rep. Kionne McGhee (D-South Dade) in the 2012 races — doing “campaign work” or “GOTV,” which are both code terms for AB operations — is on the campaign reports for former Councilman Jeff Porter, who is running for mayor, and Councilman Jimmie Williams, who is up for re-election.
Williams paid Melton $1,875 in August and September for “GOTV,” which is short for get out the vote. Porter paid Melton $1,500 for “campaign assistance” on Aug. 13. He also bought an “absentee status report” from the elections department for $60 in September. Porter won ABs with more than any of the other three candidates. He had 372 while the next guy, Miami-Dade Commissioner Lynda Bell‘s husband Mark Bell, got 305. This has led to the Bells making private claims of AB shenanigans.
Porter also sent back-to-back mailers that started arriving in Homestead homes this weekend, including a couple of pieces hitting candidate Bell for his inexperience and the $25,000 CRA grant he got for his hotel. Bell, who is better funded, started TV commercials last week, which seems like a waste of money. Why go for 50,000 or 60,000 set of eyes when only 2,000 or so of them are going to vote?
All the mail-in ballots sent out Tuesday are on the “permanent list” and include those requested during last year’s high-interest presidential race — and less than half will likely be returned.
But, still, ABs are big business and have become increasing vital — and decisive — in more and more 305 elections.
“Whoever wins the ABs, wins the election,” said Alex Dominguez, a pharmaceutical salesperson (not a realtor like the Miami Herald said in its editorial) who is running against Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo, who won a whopping 57 percent of the absentee ballots in 2009’s seven-way race.
Carollo got the whopping majority of election day and early voting ballots, too, but his 2,311 share of the 4,003 absentees cast in that race is likely what helped him get to 52.6 percent of the vote and avoid a run-off with Mavel Lopez.
And he has traditionally had the support of Miami-Dade Commissioner Bruno Barreiro‘s family, who live in the district. And las malas lenguas say Barreiro’s mom has experience with ABs. And the commissioner did win absentees in last year’s re-election bid with a wider margin than election day votes in both the primary and the run-off against former State Rep. Luis Garcia.
That might mean good news for whoever Barreiro is supporting in Miami Beach, where campaign veteran David Custin — who used to be Tirador’s partner before an ugly business divorce a couple of years ago — is running the multi-million dollar mayoral campaign of businessman Philip Levine, who dropped an ugly negative mailer against Gongora Monday and is likely to barrage people with mail and robocalls every day this week.
Like I said, the AB chase is on.
Absentee ballots may be requested up through 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct.30. Requests may be submitted online (for you, not anyone else; you don’t want the cops at your door), by email, or by telephone. Absentee ballots may be returned by mail or in person at the elections office in Doral. To make an absentee ballot request or for additional information, call 3-1-1 or visit the Miami-Dade Elections Department website at www.miamidade.gov/elections.
ABs drop today in four cities and for countywide Jackson bond added by Ladra on
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