Here’s an idea!  Why doesn’t North Miami Councilman Scott Galvin just sit in a corner and bang his head into the wall?  Certainly that would be more productive than dealing with the people over at the Miami-Dade County Department of Elections.

Deputy Supervisor of Elections Christina White tried to be helpful.  She really did.  The problem is that she doesn’t see a problem with the irregularity of the absentee ballot count in the city’s recent run-off election.

The fact that she doesn’t get it actually makes her perfectly suited to be a Deputy Supervisor of a completely clueless Department of Elections run by an equally mindless Supervisor in the form of Penelope Townsend.  The electorate has been concerned with what has been recently coined “low information voters,” but what they really should be worried about is “low information election officials.”

Reading a chain of emails between Councilman Scott Galvin and Deputy Director Christina White is one of the more exasperating exercises in futility that I’ve taken on in quite a while.  And that’s saying a lot.

On June 11, 2013, Councilman Galvin wrote to Christina White:

Hi, Christina,

I’m told that a large number of absentee ballots, over 10%, were rejected in North Miami’s June 4th run-off.  I’m also told that’s a huge percentage.  Does Dade Elections feel the same?  Does it rise to the level where you might ask further questions?

The next day, she wrote back:

Hi Scott, Absentee Ballots for this election are as follows:

Accepted – 2061

Rejected – 216

Breakdown is as follows:

I cannot speak to the number – the percentage of ballots rejected varies from one jurisdiction to another. Although, the purpose of a three member canvassing board is to gain consensus on whether a ballot should be accepted or not. This was their final determination.
 
Let me know if I can be of additional assistance.
 
Best Regards,
Christina White
Deputy Supervisor of Elections
Election Coordination, Campaigns and Compliance
Miami-Dade Elections Department
305.499.8403
305.499.8501

She never even answered his questions.  Undaunted, he wrote back to her:

Thanks for the info.  Might you have any plans of going back to the voters and asking why a signature other than their own appears on their ballot?

She responded with:

We don’t do that, but we do send every voter whose ballot was rejected a letter that indentifies [sic] why it was rejected so they will be alerted to this. In that mailing, they are provided a new voter registration application to immediately update their signature and prevent that from happening in the future.

To which he responded:

I see….well, thanks for the info….I’ll let you know if I have other questions!

The two apparently had a conversation, after which Christina surprisingly decided to “research” the issue by kicking the can upstairs to her boss, the integrity-challenged Supervisor of Elections Penelope Townsend, who kicked it back down to Deputy Dog Christina, who then wrote back on June 18, 2013 (six days later) to Councilman Galvin:

I spoke with the Supervisor after our conversation yesterday. She specified for me that if any voter calls us (as a result of the rejection letter we send them) indicating anything related to fraud or ballot mishandling, we would certainly take the appropriate action and refer it to the State Attorney’s Office.   I wanted to ensure you are aware that we would follow up with an enforcement agency if we had reason to do so. Thanks.

He should have asked “Is that your final answer?” but instead wrote back:

Thanks, Christina.  I still think Elections should be more proactive with some sort of investigation, but I appreciate you taking the time.

They should be more proactive? YA THINK???

So, let’s recap.

Thirty ballots were submitted without signature.

One hundred and eighty absentee ballots had signatures that do not match the actual voters’ signatures.

Six were signed by someone other than the voter.

But if anything were remiss, she would “refer it to the State Attorney’s Office,” where I’m sure Katherine Fernandez Rundle would just jump right on it.

NOT!

Political consultant Hector Roos calculated that 10.24% of the absentee ballots were disqualified in the run-off election (including an additional 29 that were discarded for being post marked late), which is highly unusual considering that Florida’s absentee ballot rejection rate has never exceeded 1.8% statewide.  He claimed that this aberration “should by itself been publicized by the major news outlets and perhaps referred to authorities for investigation. These results are THAT strange.”

North Miami activist Ellen Abramson has repeatedly asked what is apparently a hypothetical question in Miami-Dade County: “WHERE ARE THE AUTHORITIES?”

According to the non-answers given by Deputy Supervisor of Elections Christina White, it’s obvious that “THE AUTHORITIES” are asleep at the wheel and have absolutely no intention of routing out voter fraud.

Deputy Dog and her Supervisor both must have gone to the Katherine Fernandez Rundle School of Public Service.

Along with several other “AUTHORITIES,” such as North Miami former mayor Andre Pierre, his city mis-manager Stephen Johnson, and city clerk The Hon. Michael A. Etienne, Esquire, who allowed non-residents to run for office.

They all seem to have graduated with dubious honors.

As in the case of North Miami Beach Councilwoman Beth Spiegel, mayoral candidate Kevin Burns also had to file a lawsuit to force “THE AUTHORITIES” to do their jobs.  A Miami Herald article published today, Ex-candidate sues to have North Miami mayor removed, Mr. Burns had to file a 62 page complaint in order to prove that newly “elected” mayor Lucie Coconut Douche Tondreau did not qualify under the residency laws of the City of North Miami.  Not that “THE AUTHORITIES” cared, of course, since a Tondreau Administration is what termed-out-but-still-in-charge mayor Andre was hoping for. Considering the run-off voting results are seriously flawed, does that mean Andre was bound and determined to get the Douche elected by any means necessary?

Just asking, of course.

We can only hope that Mr. Burns gets a judge who takes his job as seriously as Judge Darrin Gayles did, and will determine that the residents of North Miami deserve a mayor who actually lives in their city.

Just saying.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”