Voter fraud is in the news again.  As reported by the Miami Herald earlier this month, 2,700 non-citizens are on the voting rolls, 1,637 of them in Miami-Dade County.  A couple weeks ago, the state purged 7,000 felons from the voting rolls.

The Florida Elections Commission started comparing names on the voter lists to lists of driver licenses issued by the Division of Motor Vehicles, which now states whether you are a U.S. citizen or not.  Problems can occur, however, when those who applied for a driver’s license, and then became a U.S. citizen in the meantime and obtained a voter registration card, will show up on the list as a non-citizen.  If that person is contacted by the state, he or she has thirty days to show proof of citizenship in order not to be purged from the rolls.

The Miami Herald ran two new stories over the weekend, Investigation of two noncitizen voters may bolster Scott’s fight with feds, and South Florida Democrats say Gov. Rick Scott leading “misguided” effort to purge voters from state rolls.  As you might expect, Miami Herald readers are very opinionated.  And partisan.  Democrats are, of course, crying foul, while Republicans are happy that the voter rolls are finally being purged.  I can’t help but wonder how these same folks would react if the Governor were a Democrat and the President were a Republican.  I imagine the cheers/jeers roles would be reversed.  How many illegal voters being stricken from the rolls, as well as the future of this project itself, remains to be seen.

In the first article, the Miami Herald trotted out two names of people who popped up on the list of purged “voters,” Neville M. Walters and Ramon Cue.  Cue claimed he never registered to vote and has never voted in his life.  Walters “couldn’t be reached” for comment, even though he lives right here in North Miami Beach.  I found him on line number 10296 of the database I received from the State of Florida in February of 2012.  If he hasn’t skipped town, I’m sure he’s not that hard to find.

Since the Great Purge began, the United States Department of Justice has ordered the State of Florida to stop purging illegal voters from its rolls, and Florida is considering fighting back.  As one might expect, this mess is turning into accusations of racism and voter suppression, neither of which have anything to do with maintaining accurate and updated voter registration rolls.

In a Miami Herald blog today, columnist Marc Caputo explains that “A 1996 immigration crackdown law gives Florida the right to access the Homeland Security database known as SAVE, which stands for “Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements.” The federal law provides for “customer agencies to use SAVE for any legal purpose such as background investigations and voter registration.”‘

However, as Caputo notes, the Department of Homeland Security has denied Florida’s access to its database since first requested in October of 2011.  Florida had no choice but to try another method using the Division of Motor Vehicles’ database.  Caputo writes,

“First, Obama’s Department of Homeland Security stonewalled the state’s noncitizen voter hunt for nearly nine months by refusing Florida access to an immigration database. Then, on Thursday, Obama’s Justice Department ordered the purge to halt, in part because time had run out.

Ironically, DOJ’s order cited the so-called “Motor Voter” law, which actually calls on states to purge ineligible voters. One former DOJ lawyer and critic, conservative J. Christian Adams, blogged that the former Obama appointee in charge of the voting section announced early on that it would ignore Motor Voter’s purge obligation.

“We have no interest in enforcing this provision of the law,” he quoted Julie Fernandes as saying in 2009 when she was an assistant attorney general. “It has nothing to do with increasing turnout, and we are just not going to do it.” She has since left DOJ.

So to recap: the feds delayed and then said time expired under a law it selectively enforces.”

Due to all the stalling tactics on the part of DHS, and Florida’s late start in purging the rolls, the federal government has taken advantage of this situation and made it appear that this is a ploy by a Republican Governor to purge the rolls of Democrat voters.  However, the Elections Department in Tampa, for example, ended up purging 39 Democrats, 39 Republicans and 26 Independents.  That’s hardly a coup for Republicans.

I can tell you, however, that I have long suspected rampant voter fraud here in North Miami Beach.  As such, I have obtained the full list of 20,628 registered voters in our city, and I’ve been painstaking combing through them for potential voter fraud.  Out of the 2,000 I’ve inspected so far, I’ve discovered thirteen red flags.  Twelve of those don’t necessarily point to voter fraud, but they do indicate potential city code violations, which states that no more than three individuals may live in a single family home who are not related by marriage, birth or adoption.  Since I’m only concerned here with voter fraud, I will save those red flags for the North Miami Beach Code Enforcement Department to deal with.  However, I believe the following cases are definitely indications of potential voter fraud:

1.  Five voters registered voters reside at 101 NE 169 Terrace.  Since there are only three different last names at this address (Herrera, Franco and Merrera), there is no violation of city code.  However, it seems that Miryan Herrera, who registered to vote on February 7, 2000 and Miryan Merrera, who registered to vote on July 19, 2004, and who have two separate ACTIVE voter registration numbers, were coincidentally born on the same date, i.e., April 12, 1956.  One person.  Two votes.  RED FLAG!

2.  Seven registered voters reside at 1050 NE 162 Street.  There are five different last names (Vixamar, Viyamar, Desrosiers, and Jean Pierre).  However, it appears that Margarite Vixamar, who registered to vote on August 24, 2004, was born on January 8, 1935, and Margarite Viyamar, who registered to vote on October 4, 2004, was born on January 8, 1936.  Each received a separate ACTIVE voter registration number.  Can someone please explain how two women live in the same house, who were born a year apart on the exact same day, and have the same first name and whose last names differ by only one letter?  What an amazing coincidence!  RED FLAG!

3.  Six registered voters live at 1061 NE 179 Street.  Although there are only three last names (Bijou, Joseph, Bijoux) at this address, one of the voters is named Melissa G. Joseph and one is named Melissa Giovana Bijou.  Ms. Bijou was registered to vote on June 30, 1999, and Ms. Joseph was registered to vote on November 20, 2007.  Both were born on November 20, 1981.  Now, it’s most likely that Ms. Bijou married a Mr. Joseph some time after she first registered to vote in 1999.  It’s also quite possible that when she changed her name to Joseph and notified the Elections Department in 2007, they issued her a new voter registration card as Melissa G. Joseph.  The problem is that she is now listed twice and has two different ACTIVE voter registration numbers.  According to this official voter list, she can vote TWICE.  How nice for her!  RED FLAG!

4.  Here’s a very interesting case.  Five registered voters with only three last names (Jean Baptiste, Loizil, Kettly) reside at 1121 NE 153 Terrace.  However, Kettly Loizil, born 5/7/62 registered to vote on September 1, 2001, while Loizil Kettly, born 7/5/62, registered to vote on October 1, 2004.  This was creative in that she simply transposed her first and last names, and birth and month day, in order to receive two different ACTIVE voter registration numbers, thus enabling her to vote TWICE.  Again, how nice!  RED FLAG!

5.  Four registered voters live at 121 NE 170 Street with four last names (Rivera, Lopez, Gonzalez, Lopez, Herrera).  However, two of the voters, Maria Del Pilar Gonzalez and Maria Del Pilar Herrera, appear to be the same person born on October 12, 1965.  I will assume that most likely she got married between the first time she registered to vote on August 12, 2002, and the second registration dated September 15, 2010.  The problem is that she is now listed twice and has two different ACTIVE voter registration numbers.  According to this official voter list, she can vote TWICE.  How nice for her!  RED FLAG!

The voter list I reviewed had several people with two different registration numbers, presumably due to name, address or party change.  I noted that where there are cases of duplicate names, one number is listed as INACTIVE.  I was only concerned with those people who appear to have two ACTIVE registration numbers.

Bottom line is that I have uncovered five potential fraudulent voters out of only 2,000 registered North Miami Beach voters.  At this rate, I could find up to 50 fraudulent voters or more once I finish wading through the over 20,000 names.

In 2009, Frantz Pierre won the North Miami Beach City Council election by 15 votes over his opponent, Kenneth A. DeFillipo.  If someone had reviewed and purged the voter list before that election, it’s quite possible that election would have had a very different outcome.  I’m just saying.

There are approximately 150 million registered voters in the United States.  If one extrapolates my unscientific estimate of fifty fraudulent voters per 20,000, there could be potentially 375,000 or more instances of voter fraud in any given national election.  I imagine that a professional and scientific research of the country’s voter rolls would result in the purging of many, many more.

Considering that George W. Bush won the 2000 election by a mere 543,895 votes nationwide, Democrats should be just as concerned as Republicans about voter fraud.  Voter fraud is not a partisan problem.  It’s an American problem.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”