The absentee voter fraud scandal in northeast Miami-Dade County continues to get attention.  The Miami Herald’s most recent article, Probe finds ‘unscrupulous’ absentee-voting practices at ALF (http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/28/2522333/probe-finds-unscrupulous-absentee.html), states, “A Miami-Dade ethics commission investigation has found questionable absentee-ballot practices at a North Miami Beach assisted-living facility where three residents reported voting problems — and where, after a visit from investigators, one employee said she was instructed to toss all future ballots ‘in the garbage.” The nine-month investigation began after Judith Thompson was turned away from the polls in last year’s general election after being told she had already voted absentee — though she had never requested a ballot. Two other women at the Park Plaza Retirement Residence also had trouble voting by mail.”

Not surprisingly, “No charges were filed as a result of the probe, initiated by the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office in January and completed by the Commission on Ethics and Public Trust last month.”

The common denominator here is that back in January the Miami-Dade state attorney was Joe Centorino, and the executive director of the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust is now….you guessed it…Joe Centorino.

I’m shocked.  Shocked, I tell you.  Simply shocked.

Yeah, right.

Under Let ’em Go Joe’s “leadership” at the state attorney’s office, none of the cases presented to him by citizen activists in North Miami Beach were prosecuted.  According to Centorino, the state attorney is only concerned with actual crimes, as opposed to silly little things like public officials engaging in rampant voter fraud.  Or abuse of power.  Or corruption.  Or even committing perjury.  No, according to Joe, a crime has to be really big for his former office to bother getting involved.  We have yet to find out how big a crime has to be to get the attention of the state attorney.

As of a couple months ago, Joe Centorino probably figured he had enough fun playing FarmVille on his computer at the state attorney’s office, while collecting the big bucks and what is probably a nice pension on taxpayer dime, so he made the big move to head up an even more useless government agency known as the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust.  Now, Joe has even more time to harvest his virtual crops since this Commission does even less work than the folks over at the state attorney’s office.

What no one has reported as yet about this “breaking news” story, is that this absentee ballot voter fraud scheme was actually uncovered by a blogger called Geniusofdespair, which I reported on back in September in Cracking Down on Absentee Ballot Fraud (https://www.votersopinion.com/?p=1348).  If you haven’t read the blog and seen the videos, please do yourself a favor and check it out.

Since this story broke, several other news sources and blogs have covered it, including the Miami New Times (http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/11/absentee_ballot_fraud_could_de.php), and of course, VotersOpinion.com.  But apparently it’s not a big enough crime for the state attorney’s office to prosecute or the Ethics Commission to consider pursuing.  Even though Joe Centorino admitted that “our review of voting records does indicate that all of the women had their ballots or related forms altered, forged or compromised,” he still couldn’t come up with enough evidence to file charges.

WTF?

Yeah, Joe.  I guess your crops needed harvesting.  FarmVille can be very time consuming.  I get that.

I also get that here in Miami-Dade County, and especially in North Miami Beach, anything goes if you’re a public official.  Go on, politicians.  Do whatever you want.  Let ’em Go Joe’s got your back!

Now for the Random Questions:

1.  Why is it the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was able to arrest eight individuals in Madison County, Florida, who were involved in a massive absentee ballot fraud scheme (http://www.wtxl.com/content/localnews/story/Madison-County-officials-arrested-for-voter-fraud/-Nq7HTFCCU-kRpw39U_2tA.cspx) and obtain “enough evidence” for their state attorney’s office to prosecute?

2.  Where the hell is Madison County anyway?

3.  How much evidence would be considered “enough evidence” for our own state attorney’s office to prosecute something…anything?

4.  Why did former North Miami Beach mayor Myron Rosner pay $340.00 to Watercrest Care Center, an ALF in North Miami Beach, on March 16, 2011, as listed on page 30 of his Campaign Treasurer’s Report?

I’m just saying.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”