Since 1927, Time Magazine has featured on the cover of its year end issue a “Person of the Year,” which was originally called “Man of the Year.”  From Charles Lindbergh through 2013’s Pope Francis, the periodical’s choices have always reflected someone (or something) that made an impact on the world at large in the preceding twelve months.  Some were popular and well liked figures, such as Presidents, inventors and peacemakers, while others were controversial.  All were newsworthy.  Of the eighty seven covers, all but thirteen designees were individuals.  Other covers included specific groups of people, with the exception of earth as “Planet of the Year” and the computer as “Machine of the Year.”

In reviewing this year’s events in North Miami Beach and North Miami, I thought long and hard about the one person or issue that seemed to be a prevalent theme.  The main thing that stood out was voter fraud, and specifically, absentee ballot voter fraud.  Therefore, I decided to name The Absentee Ballot as VotersOpinion’s First Ever “Thing of the Year.”

With the 2013 North Miami Beach election looming, I was already on the case of potential absentee ballot fraud.  Early last year I discovered (and blogged to death) that Councilcritter Frantz Pierre had numerous “voters” living at his house.  By January of this year, I attempted to get the then interim City Manager, Roslyn Weisblum to enforce the Code since all those “voters” do not legally belong in La Maison de Pierre according to our city’s ordinances.  Most of them had voted by absentee ballot in previous elections.  That was an epic fail.  Good old Roz came up with her usual double speak in order to protect L’il Frantzie P and, as usual, nothing was done to address, much less fix, the problem.  When the time came for the Council to hire a permanent City Manager, Roz got the boot.  Hopefully, the new City Manager will come up with a better plan before the next election in 2015, but I’m not holding my breath.

In May, I took it upon myself to hire private investigator Joe Carillo, whose expertise had previously led to the successful arrest (although not so successful prosecution) of Hialeah ballot broker Deisy Cabrera, in order to help rout out absentee ballot voter fraud in advance of the North Miami Beach election.  Mr. Carillo was able to take incriminating photographs of local known ballot broker Volney Nerette with an absentee ballot in hand and took them to the Public Corruption Unit.  He was laughed out of their office.  As for the Hialeah case, more than a year after Cabrera’s arrest, she got a year’s probation.  Yeah, the State Attorney made a real example out of Cabrera, huh?  The news of her sentence put fear in the hearts of all potential boleteras out there contemplating absentee ballot fraud in future elections.  They were stopped dead in their tracks.

Needless to say, Mr. Carillo has since given up the absentee ballot fraud fight.  He is sorely missed.

If you do decide to vote by mail in the future, no worries, folks, your ballot is in good hands.  I’m sure the peeps over at the Miami-Dade Elections Department are at the top of their game.  Okay, kidding.

After North Miami’s May election, only 746 ballots disappeared into thin air, according to mayoral also-ran, Jean Marcellus.  Turns out, they weren’t missing at all.  A clerk at the Elections Department merely “mislabeled the CD handed to the candidate,” according to a CBS Miami article on May 17, 2013.  Whew!  What a relief, huh?  I mean, what’s a little human error when the results of an entire election are at stake?

Then there was the baffling correspondences between North Miami Councilman Scott Galvin and Deputy Supervisor of Elections Christina White regarding the minor problem of unsigned ballots, unmatched signatures on ballots that were actually signed, and ballots that were signed by someone other than the voter.  Ms. White blew his concerns off with the assurance that “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.”  Again, we are so comforted by that knowledge.

All things considered, though, that clerk who mislabels stuff or the deputy who sees no evil are really the least of our concerns when the head honcho of the Elections Department, Penelope Townsley decided to make absentee ballot fraud even easier by refusing to comply with a grand jury’s recommendation to secure the department’s website with silly little things like user names and passwords.  If labeling a CD properly or verifying voter signatures are jobs that are too difficult for her employees to perform, the Elections Supervisor must believe that remembering a user name and password would be way too mind boggling a task for the average voter to conquer.  After all, it might require thinking.  We can’t have that, now can we?  If voters actually used their brain cells, then … oh, never mind.

The absentee ballot fraud problem only got worse once the Miami-Dade County Public Corruption Unit was dismantled by County Mayor Carlos Gimenez in what former members of the Unit claim was “political reprisal for the investigation of the absentee-ballot fraud in Hialeah,” according to a Miami Herald article dated August 21, 2013.  Detective Luis Rodriguez, who was instrumental in busting North Miami Beach EX-mayor Myron Rosner, was one of the members who resigned from the Unit.  The chances of fighting voter fraud got even slimmer.

Capping off the year in voter fraud issues was last month’s raid on North Miami Mayor Lucie Tondreau’s office.  As the Miami Herald reported, Mayor Tondreau “denied any involvement in the fraudulent ballot requests,” but her campaign treasurer, Nacivre “Good Time Charlie” Charles, a man “adept at smuggling narcotics, weapons and explosives” (as described by local blogger The Straw Buyer), was implicated in the alleged fraud.

Because AB fraud was a hot topic throughout 2013, VotersOpinion has dubbed The Absentee Ballot as “Thing of the Year.”  Accepting the award on behalf of the winner is none other than Good Time Charlie himself.

Congratulations!

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”