Gotta love Hallandale Beach Blogger, David B. Smith, who circulated an email with the subject, “There is no such thing as voter ID fraud says Miami Herald Editorial Board… as paper prints yet another story about ballot fraud.”  He also included the full text of yesterday’s Miami Herald article entitled, The case of the phantom ballots: an electoral whodunit.

The great thing about blogging is that while most (if not all) of us respect the rules of journalistic integrity, such as protecting our sources, not publishing off-the-record comments, and the like, we are also not constrained by things like unbiased reporting the way so-called “real” journalists are supposed to write.  We get to be as opinionated as we wanna be.  We also get to point out the absolute hypocrisy of the so-called “real” media, such as the Miami Herald.  Good thing, too, or the public would continue to be hoodwinked into believing that the media never gets it wrong.  Unfortunately, far too many readers actually fall for journalistic hype, editorial opinions, and in the case of elections, they vote for whoever the [insert newspaper name here] recommends.  Bloggers at least give the voters a chance to learn what the Herald and others don’t publish.

For example, I first wrote about absentee ballot fraud on June 27, 2011 in How much is your vote worth?

In September of that year, bloggers Geniusofdespair and Gimleteye of Eye On Miami, broke the voter fraud story wide open, which I reported on in Cracking Down on Absentee Ballot Fraud.

In my column on November 29, 2011, Random Questions, I discussed a then current Miami Herald article Probe finds ‘unscrupulous’ absentee-voting practices at ALF (no longer posted online), where the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics investigated “questionable absentee-ballot practices at a North Miami Beach assisted living facility.”

Not surprisingly, said investigation went nowhere as no charges were filed after a nine month investigation despite overwhelming proof that fraud had been committed.

Also not surprisingly, it was alleged absentee ballot fraud at two North Miami Beach assisted living facilities that determined the “winner” of last August’s tight race for State House District 107, of which Barbara Watson was ultimately awarded the seat over Representative John Patrick Julien, despite overwhelming evidence of vote buying and fraud.  As I reported in We’re All Disenfranchised Now in August of 2012, dead people voted, and ballots were counted from voters who claimed they never requested an absentee ballot at all.  Evidence be damned!

On March 29, 2012, I reported in One Person, One Vote? that I found in just a small sampling of North Miami Beach voters thirteen instances of voters with two registration numbers, and fourteen registered voters in a one two bedroom, one bath home.

It was blogger Elaine De Valle of Political Cortadito who investigated and helped break open the absentee ballot ring of Hialeah, which led to the August, 2012 arrests of Deisy Cabrera and Sergio Robaina.

Of course, as reported by the Miami Herald on December 23, 2012 in Despite arrests, ballot brokers get ready for 2013 elections, “given authorities’ apparent lack of interest in investigating the cases, some of the Miami-Dade ballot brokers, known as boleteros, have already begun to coordinate the collection of absentee ballots for next year.  There will be elections in 2013 in 15 of Miami-Dade’s 35 municipalities…”

North Miami Beach is one of them.  Three of the seven council seats are up for grabs.

Meanwhile, I am still working on my own extensive, and continuing, investigation of North Miami Beach councilman Frantz Pierre since March of 2012 about the unusually high and rotating number of registered voters living in his home.  There were nine at last count.  (Just search “absentee ballot fraud” on this website to access all my columns about the P Man’s shenanigans.)

While L’il Frantzie P’s term doesn’t expire until 2015, or his arrest, whichever comes first, don’t think he’ll sit out this election.  Not by a long shot!

Vying for Group 2, which will be vacated by retiring councilman, Philippe Derose, are long time resident Anthony DeFillipo and someone by the name of Jean “Who Dat?” Berrouet.  Mr. Berrouet claims to live at 249 NE 166th Street, North Miami Beach, Florida 33162, an address which does not exist according to the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser.

A search of Mr. Berrouet’s name, however, shows that he has a homesteaded property located at 240 East Drive, North Miami Beach, Florida 33162, which he has owned since May 15, 1997.

This, of course, raises the question about where Mr. Berrouet really lives.

As if that weren’t enough of a red flag, Mr. Berrouet’s campaign manager is none other than the City Clerk of our scandal plagued neighboring municipality North Miami, where ethics and public trust are never violated.  Well, according to the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission, anyway.  Here in the real world, however, we all know what goes on in North Miami!

As if that weren’t enough of a red flag, word on the street is that Mr. Berrouet is also being assisted by none other than those fun loving Cherubin brothers, who are in bed with North Miami’s mayor Andre Pierre, and embroiled in the infamous Biscayne Landings/Petite Cayemite scandal, which I also reported on here, here and here.

The Cherubins are also “famous” in North Miami Beach for asking the city’s CRA to purchase land they own on Northeast 19th Avenue, just so that the CRA can give them back that same land to build a hotel.  As I reported in In Phyllis’ Chair, “On the agenda was the discussion of a piece of property for sale on NE 19th Avenue, which the sellers want to sell to the City for the purpose of building a hotel.  I’m not quite sure what the deal is, but it appears that the city will buy this land from the owners, give them CRA money to build a hotel so that they can run it.  Isn’t that special?”

It sure is!

With the exception of North Miami City Clerk Michael Etienne, who happens to be an intelligent, super nice and personable young man, I never met the mysterious Jean D. Berrouet or the “land specialists” Cherubin brothers.  Mr. Berrouet is pretty much off the radar (for now), but the reputations of the Cherubins precede them.  Just saying.

Rumor has it, though, that our own Mr. Pee-Air will be joining the Berrouet campaign for the purpose of handling the ABSENTEE BALLOTS!

Well, isn’t that special?

If the rumors prove true, it would appear that the shadiest of characters are all banding together to make sure Mr. Berrouet gets a seat at the table.  If the rumors prove true, this blogger has her work cut out for her.  I guess there will be no sitting out this election season, eh?

As David B. Smith, Hallandale Beach Blogger, so astutely put it, “There is no such thing as voter ID fraud says Miami Herald Editorial Board… as paper prints yet another story about ballot fraud,” if the Gadfly uncovers ballot fraud in the North Miami Beach 2013 election, you won’t hear about it in the Herald.

But you will read about it right here!

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”