In an incredibly stupid move, the Miami-Dade County Commission voted for something they actually think will “curtail voter fraud.”  According to The Miami Herald, the Miami-Dade Commission votes to provide prepaid return postage for absentee ballots.  How nice.  Now the ballot brokers, or boleteras, will save about $170,000.00 in postage when sending in their clients’ absentee ballots.  Courtesy of the taxpayers of Miami-Dade County.

Ladies like Deisy Cabrera and Noucelie Josna, not to mention their male counterpart Sergio Robaina, will be able to earn an even bigger paycheck with all the money they’ll potentially save by not having to fork over the dough for stamps.  Sweet!

The Herald reported:

“The county measure, put forth by Commissioner Esteban “Steve” Bovo, was approved unanimously with a voice vote. Chairman Joe Martinez and Commissioners Lynda Bell, Dennis Moss and Xavier Suarez were absent for the vote.  Bovo’s proposal came after his office was embroiled in one of two ongoing Hialeah absentee-ballot fraud investigations that resulted in the arrest of two ballot brokers, Deisy Cabrera and Sergio Robaina. They have been charged with voter fraud and with violating a county ordinance that prohibits the possession of multiple absentee ballots.”

That Steve.  What a guy!

This insane idea was actually “recommended by a grand jury in 1998, after the courts ruled that a notorious Miami city election the previous year had been tainted by absentee-ballot fraud.  Prepaid postage, the grand jury said, could prevent ballot tampering.”

Oh, really?  In what world?  Saturn?

Surprisingly, Commissioner Barbara Jordon, who herself paid $3,000.00 to the self-proclaimed “Queen of Absentee Ballots” Noucelie Josna during her last campaign, voted against it before she voted for it.  Not so surprisingly, she changed her mind “after county administrators assured her that money for the postage would not come from existing funds currently used to send sample ballots to voters, resulting in fewer sample ballots going out.”  In other words, Ms. Jordan didn’t want to risk the possibility of voters not being able to familiarize themselves with her name in advance of actual elections.  As a bonus round, she gets to spend even more of our money than necessary.  Way to gouge the taxpayers, Commish!  Never let it be said that you’re fiscally responsible with our tax dollars.  I’m just saying.

The truth is that the problem with absentee ballot fraud starts at the state level.  The Florida legislature should enact laws to restrict the use of absentee ballots to voters who have legitimate reasons for not voting in person.  Some of these would include members of the military who are stationed outside their voting district, voters who can prove they will be traveling on election day, students who attend schools out of town, and people who are permanently confined due to disability or illness.  Secondly, the county elections departments should be required to mail the absentee ballots to the out of town addresses to ensure that no outside persons will have access to them.  Exceptions could be made for those disabled or ill who cannot leave their places of residence, but proof of such must be provided to the elections department.  In other words, absentee ballots should not be easy to obtain.  This would tremendously cut down the risk of ballot brokers being able to get their hands on multiple ballots.

The proposal voted on by the Miami-Dade County Commission under the guise of curtailing voter fraud is positively absurd!  What they have done is actually increase the possibility of even more ballots being fraudulently used since the ballot brokers can simply drop the forms into the nearest mailbox and bypass the post office altogether.  Better yet, the boleteras will be able to save a fortune in gas by not having to hand deliver them to the elections department all the way out west in Doral.  We have just saved the criminals time AND money!  WOO HOO!

It’s bad enough some grand jury, which is made up of a panel of Joe Citizens, came up with this “brilliant” idea in the first place.  It’s even worse that the bonehead County Commission thought it was rocket science and voted unanimously to charge us for the privilege of their collective stupidity.

The only way to undo this damage is to VOTE ALL THE BUMS OUT OF OFFICE NEXT TIME THEY RUN!

Who wants to bet that my cats could do a better job running this damn county?  I know they could.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”