In a brand new article hot off the Miami Herald’s presses, North Miami rejects measures aimed at absentee ballot fraud, the indisputably most corrupt mayor in all of Miami-Dade County, Andre Pierre categorically stated, “We don’t have that problem in North Miami.”

Well, if Hizzoner says it, it must be true!

However, evidence to the contrary has been popping up all over not only North Miami, but all around the county, including my hometown, North Miami Beach.  Politically involved citizens, who pay attention to elections, will tell you that they believe many elected officials have “won” their seats by absentee ballot fraud in the past several years.  Until recently, it’s been extremely hard to prove, and even harder to get election officials and law enforcement agencies to care.  With the recent boletero scandal in Hialeah making the headlines, absentee ballot problem is finally impossible to ignore.

Representative John Patrick Julien’s legal case regarding absentee ballot fraud is heating up.  As I reported in We’re All Disenfranchised Now, Mr. Julien filed an Amended Complaint alleging that his opponent for State Representative had committed absentee ballot fraud in order to win the election on August 14, 2012.  Investigators for Mr. Julien interviewed the staff and alleged voters at two nursing homes, the Watercrest and Claridge House.  These witnesses provided enough information to raise the suspicion of fraud and the investigators included their findings in the Complaint.

In case you aren’t aware, nursing homes and assisted living facilities are ripe for voter fraud.  Many of the residents are ill or infirm, and some of them are mentally and/or emotionally debilitated.  It’s almost too easy for candidates to take advantage of these individuals unless safeguards are in place to protect their rights.  Due to allegations of voter fraud in these facilities after the August 14th election, the Florida Assisted Living Association recently published guidelines to help prevent voter fraud in these institutions.  Many of these guidelines apparently arose after candidates raised legitimate suspicions about the integrity of their races.  If guidelines like these had been in place before the election, many of these problems could have been avoided.

Since Mr. Julien filed his complaint, attorney Juan-Carlos Planas served subpoenas to depose as witnesses certain individuals that were paid by Barbara Watson to “canvass” for her.  They were Dordy Josna, Julia Silva, Noucelie Josna a/k/a Nancy Josna, Franklin Davis, Joyce Miller, Richard Davis, Tveshia Shaw and Carline Paul a/k/a Teacher Carline.  Mind you, these individuals were served as witnesses and not defendants.  Their depositions were scheduled for yesterday, October 10, 2012.  Despite the fact that none of these individuals were named as a defendant in the lawsuit, not a single one of them showed up for their scheduled depositions.  Ms. Josna and Ms. Shaw sent faxes to Mr. Planas claiming that “they needed attorneys and can’t attend.”  Someone claiming to be an attorney did contact him on behalf of Carline Paul, but claimed she was out of town and would not answer any further questions or respond to any more phone calls.

Not even one of the witnesses complied with a subpoena for deposition?  How odd!  Smells like collusion to me.

Here’s the thing.  If I were to witness a crime, I would spill the beans.  If I witnessed a crime and I were subpoenaed to testify as to my knowledge of said crime, I would do everything in my power to comply.  If I witnessed a crime and were asked to testify as a witness, I wouldn’t even think of hiring a lawyer.  Unless I did something wrong!  Hmmmm…

As we all know, it’s against the law to ignore a subpoena.  Because these witnesses decided to break the law, Mr. Julien’s attorney is now filing Motions for Contempt and asking the judge to compel the witnesses to appear for their depositions.  In addition to giving testimony, the subpoenas included a Request to Produce certain documentation, including their tax returns.  It sure seems to me that some of those paid “canvassers” may not want it made public how much income they DIDN’T claim on their tax returns.  I’m just saying.

Hearings have been scheduled for October 15, 16 and 17, 2012, but Barbara Watson’s attorney has filed motions for continuance in what appears to be a blatant attempt to stall the case until after the November 6th General Election, at which time the court will lose its jurisdiction over the case.  As smart a move as this is on her part, it tells me that she is afraid to answer to the charges in the first place.  If she has nothing to hide, why stall?

Mr. Julien’s attorney, Juan-Carlos Planas, told me, “The bottom line here is that it’s obvious there has been fraud in absentee ballot voting.  Just because someone wins the election [by in-person voting] but loses by absentee doesn’t mean it’s absolute.  There are voting anomalies and people who concentrate on obtaining absentee ballots – 90% of the time it’s legitimate.  We elminated other precints that Barbara Watson won by absentee and we have been extremely judicious in how we have chosen the areas where we have concentrated the investigation.  The issues that really pertain here are that Noucelie Josna is the self-proclaimed “queen of absentee ballots.”  John Patrick Julien refused to hire her.  Barbara Watson hired her and paid her a lot of money, and lo and behold, we have all these issues with absentee ballots.  If Josna was doing everything above board, not only would they be the first to stand up and declare her innocence, and produce evidence of it, but the fact is that she’s avoiding subpoena.  She’s only a witness and doesn’t even want to testifiy about what she knows.  In the course of investigating the nursing homes we found it suspicious that all the ballots were requested on the same day, then turned in the same day, and that there was unsupervised voting.  At Claridge House, it turns out Carline Paul’s mother was a resident there.  Now all of a sudden Ms. Paul is out of town and her attorney won’t return calls.”

I, for one, would like to see this case tried before a judge and/or a jury to determine whether or not voter fraud was committed.  Regardless of whether you supported John Patrick Julien or Barbara Watson for State Representative, I would like you to ask yourself one question.  You don’t have to tell me the answer.  Just look yourself in the mirror and be honest to the person you see.  The question is:

If Barbara Watson is found guilty of committing absentee ballot fraud, can you really trust her to represent your best interests in the state legislature?

I already know the answer to that question.  I hope you’re on the same page with me, because public officials who are capable of breaking the law to get elected will only serve their own best interests.  I don’t know about you, but I definitely want to know if we were cheated out of a fair and equitable election.  We will never rout out fraud and corruption in our government unless we are willing to stand up and speak out against it.  Loudly and publicly.

The only way we’ll ever find out is if Barbara Watson mans up and answers the charge before it’s too late.  If she gets to Tallahassee before we know the truth, there will always be the nagging doubt that the public trust has been betrayed.

Absentee ballot fraud is not a “victimless” crime.  When it happens, we are all robbed of our right as citizens to an honest and fair election.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  Every fraudulent absentee ballot that is counted as a vote in the State of Florida negates every one of ours.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”