Big Brother really is watching. And he’s counting your votes.
A very disturbing mailer appeared Wednesday — 
which is five days before it’s all over — in the Miami-Dade mailboxes of registered voters who have not yet cast ballots for the Nov. 4 election.
“Don’t throw away your vote! Your neighbors will know. It’s public record,” says one side of the piece, which basically not only tries to shame or even scare you into voting, it threatens to “out” you if you fail to exercise your right to vote.
“Every year, thousands of your neighbors fail to vote. We think its too important. This year, we are providing the names of your neighbors and their voting record. The next time we send this mailer, we will include information on who voted in this upcoming November election.”
My mom’s mailer included all voters in this family plus of list of neighbors. So it stands to reason that some of our neighbors got us on their list.
Oh, my! How will we look them in the eye?!
Really? Really? Have we stooped so low to need strong-arm methods to get out the vote? 
My mom likes to vote in person on Election Day while me and Papi vote absentee por si las moscas so leave her alone. You got her all upset.
Of course, and as the fine print says, how a person voted is not public record and “will not be disclosed.” But, apparently, if a person voted is fair game.
The card was paid by Citizens for a Better Florida, an Orlando-based ECO (same as a PAC) chaired by Richard Darling has spent close to $2 million since 2009 on candidates everywhere — Hernando County, Orange County, Martin County — a couple of House districts and even the Miami Beach mayoral bid of former Commissioner Michael Gongora. The PAC, which gets all its money from the Realtors PAC and Florida Realtors PAC, spent $650,000 this year, including the half a million shelled out Oct. 21 (postage deposit) and Monday for a mailer for Gov. Rick Scott. Well, my mom is a registered Republican, so that makes sense.
So is the family member of Juanky Robaina, a former Miami-Dade Republican committeeman and Young Republicans member who is a political junkie and usually loves the campaign mail that arrives in his mailbox. Not this piece though.
“Absurdly creepy,” Robaina called it. “I consult on marketing for a living and this made even me a little squeamish,” he told Ladra.
But it wasn’t the only murky mailer that arrived Wednesday. 
Another piece to shake up my Republican mom at least thanks her for her past ballots first. But still made her shiver to know that people are searching through her voting record.
“Official public records from the Florida Division of Elections show that you voted in the 2012 election and we want to thank you. Our Democracy depends on people like you exercising the right to vote in this election,” it starts innocently enough. “Many people like you will be voting in the important election on November 4th. We encourage you to join them.”
Encourage, huh? That’s what you’re calling it?
This mailer is a stapled 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper (read: cheaper to produce and mail) paid for by the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund, a non profit that “encourages citizens to vote and does not endorse any candidate or political party.” I couldn’t find it in the state’s Division of Elections database — so I guess they are not held to the same standard of public scrutiny they want to hold my mom and other voters to.
By the way, this might backfire with some people. “Que se han creido,” my mom said, which means “Who do they think they are?”
After all, we have every right not to vote also. My parents didn’t flee a country where voting ridiculously fraudulent and for many people mandatory to come here and have the government pressure us.
On the other hand, nice timing. Happy Halloween.
Two creepy PAC mailers try to shame voters into action added by Ladra on
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