Of the 3,743 voters whose absentee or mail-in ballots were rejected for some kind of deficiency, one number stands out: 10 were invalid because the voters were deceased.
Yes, that’s right, the dead voted in Miami-Dade. Again. Sounds like an AMC movie of the week.
If you remember, the 1997 Miami election was overturned because, in part, the Miami Herald found a dead resident named Manuel Yip had cast a vote. There were also dozens of votes from people who were found to live outside the city — in Westhchester, Hialeah and Kendall — not at the address they voted from.
Read related: Absentee ballots will be bigger than ever in time of COVID-19
According to figures from the elections department, 55 of the absentee ballots rejected last month were cast by voters who don’t live in Miami-Dade County.
This is not good. This does not give us confidence in the electoral process here. This does not bode well for November.
Ladra has soooo many questions. We asked the elections officials in an email but it was super late and, very unexpectedly, Deputy Elections Supervisor Suzy Trutie told Ladra the deceased voters’ ballots were rejected because their date of death was prior to the postmark on their ballots. All the dead voters passed away in July. Some of them voted almost a month later, according to figures provided by the elections department who got the dead figures from the Florida Department of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics.
We have living, breathing people barely motivated to vote and there are 10 people — that we know of — so motivated, they voted from beyond? Talk about being absentee.
Still, sooooo many questions.
Who voted for the dead voters? And, by the way, are they COVID-19 deaths? Is this a higher number than usual for one election cycle? Are we talking about over-zealous relatives who really, really wanted to support their choice for school board? Will they be charged with a crime?
Or are we talking about an organized effort to manipulate larger blocks of absentee ballots? It wouldn’t be the first or second or third time.
Read related: Commissioner Bovo’s office was boletero central
Where are these dead voters — and out of county voters, for that matter — voting from? Is it, dare Ladra ask, Hialeah? Where boleteras abound and police in 2012 found absentee ballots were being stuffed into the trunk of a car of a county district aide for Commissioner Esteban Bovo, who just happened to eeek out a comfy pole position in the Aug. 18 mayoral primary?
The report from the Miami-Dade Elections Department also shows that 274 ballots were rejected because the signatures do not match the one on file. Not sure this applies to everyone, but Ladra signed her voter’s registration card, like, 30-some years ago. Certainly there are going to be some signatures that change. Especially as more voters are encouraged to turn to ABs in the midst of the pandemic.
Another 161 were rejected because they were the “wrong style” ballot. Um, what? How did voters get the “wrong style” ballot if they are mailed to us from the elections department? Did 161 people just print out sample ballots and send those bubbled in?
Last question (for now): Is anybody investigating this?
At least 10 dead voters cast absentee ballots in Miami-Dade August primary added by Ladra on
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