The fix is in, so much for getting justice in the absentee ballot scandal...

Lately it seems like there isn't a day that goes by with some sort of mention of the absentee ballot scandal that's rocked Miami Dade county.  First we had the alleged Hialeah absentee ballot broker Deisy (wtf kind of name is that?) Cabrera get arrested for illegally collecting at least 31 absentee ballots in the August 14 election.  Shortly thereafter we had Sergio "el tio" Robaina, former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina's uncle get arrested for allegedly filling out absentee ballots for voters and collecting several ballots which is against the law.

There's nothing new here, absentee ballot fraud has been going on for ages in Miami, in fact several of my friends who have run for elected office have told me about these people approaching them during their campaign and offering to deliver them x-amount of votes for a fixed price.  Shortly after these two arrests we saw newly reelected Miami Dade County Mayor, Carlos Gimenez, distance himself from these ballot brokers stating that...

"If I didn't hire her, how am I blamed for something that I didn't do?  These ladies do not work for my campaign"

That's all well and good, it's entirely possible that Mayor Gimenez had nothing to do with these ballot brokers despite the various photos of them together floating around.  Next we saw our State Attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, jump into the fire and recuse herself and her office from the absentee ballot fraud case after which Florida governor Scott resigned the case to Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz, as if that's really going to make any difference at all.

So here we are now nearly a month after all this ballot fraud noise started and it seemed for a brief moment that we might have a chance of getting some sort of real justice, that is until today.  The first thing that struck me as being strange was the Miami Dade State Attorneys Office asking Judge Milton Hirsch to push back Robaina's arraignment.  Now that struck me as bizarre for two reasons, first, considering that there's a major election looming just over the horizon, wouldn't you want to get to the bottom of the absentee ballot fraud as fast as humanly possible?  The second thing that makes no sense is why is the Miami Dade State Attorneys Office asking for the arraignment to be pushed back (according to the Herald) when the Miami SAO was supposed to recuse itself from this case?  What am I missing?

So here we are, is all this hoopla in the media about the absentee ballot bullshit just that, bullshit or is there really a meaningful investigation going on that will end up with some of the players behind this age old scheme going to jail?  I was really hoping that it was the later, that is until I got a call today from one of my sources in the Miami Dade Police Department who gave me some really disturbing news.  Before we go any further, I'd like to make it perfectly clear that what I was told has not been substantiated so until the time that I can confirm what I was told, treat what I'm about to tell you as unsubstantiated rumor, strictly fiction to amuse ourselves with.  As I mentioned earlier, the absentee ballot fraud is pervasive and has been part of the Miami political game for as long as anyone can remember.  In this most recent case, there's been talk about the scandal reaching up the chain to the highest circles of Miami politics, perhaps even going up as far as our county Mayor.  In the most recent election, it seemed like the absentee ballots provided the razor thin margins that several of the candidates were able to win there seats with so it's easy to understand why some very powerful people are going to want this whole scandal to go away quietly. 

Now, here comes the unsubstantiated rumor part.  My source from the PD tells me that recently there have been moves made recently to transfer the Major in charge of Public Corruption in the MDPD out of his position and replace him with an old friend and lacky of Mayor Gimenez, a fellow from the Hammocks named Major Hernan Organvidez.  Again, this is no way shape or form anything more than an unsubstantiated rumor, but consider for a moment if it was true.  Who better to oversee a critical investigation into voter fraud that may affect you and your colleagues than an old friend?  I don't need to elaborate on the advantages of this possible arrangement, you all have a good enough imagination to be able to figure out how things could work to your advantage when one of your friends is conducting a criminal investigation into you and your campaign workers actions coming up to an election.

So is the fix in?  I don't know but with the SAO delaying Robaina's arraignment and the possibility of the Mayor's buddy taking over the MDPD public corruption unit,  it certainly looks like it!

Absentee ballot fraud prevention taken to another level...

Daisy Cabrera, alleged absentee ballot fraudster pictured with Mayor Gimenez

With all the noise about absentee ballot fraud recently, two Miami Dade legislative candidates have decided to put there money where there mouths are.  According to this flyer put out by candidates for state house, Ross Hancock and Dr. Jeff Solomon, they will pay anyone $1,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of people committing absentee ballot fraud.  Check out the flyer...

Absentee Ballot Fraud Reward

Sounds legit!  Visit their website for more info.  But here's the real question.  Considering how pervasive this type of voting fraud is, why is it left to two candidates for state house to put something like this together?  Shouldn't the state attorneys office or the police be offering a reward like this?

What happened to Dade county's fight against the maquinitas?

While we're all well aware of the maquinita saga within the City of Miami, what happened to the ongoing war against the illegal gaming machines at the county level?  About a year ago the Miami Dade County Police department conducted an extensive undercover investigation where they placed undercover cops in various shops where these gaming machines were and actually had them play till they won and were subsequently paid their winnings in cash which ultimately led to the arrest of the owners of the establishments.  This was a big step forward in the fight against the "maquinitas" as this investigation was free and clear of any political motivations that were alleged to have caused the war between the various political factions within the City of Miami.  From the Miami Herald article which I can't seem to find online any more...

“The timing of our investigations is based upon the complexity of the case and our interaction with partner agencies, period,” said Miami-Dade police Cmdr. Nancy Perez, a spokeswoman. “Our investigations are not influenced by political considerations.”

What MDPD commander Nancy Perez was referring to was the timing of this case in reference to the then county mayoral elections following the ousting of Mayor Carlos Alvarez.  Shortly after these arrests were made, I actually went out and met with the undercover cops who made this case, at the time they were worried that if Julio Robaina was elected county mayor that there work against these gaming machines was going to be cut off as it was well known that Robaina was backed by the maquinita industry.  On the other hand, they were convinced that if Carlos Gimenez was elected they were going to keep going balls to the walls in their fight against the maquinita rackets, once again from the Miami Herald article...

One day after the Bird Road raid, Gimenez lambasted Robaina’s support of the gaming industry, calling for a police task force to combat the industry. “The citizens of this community have spoken against this illegal activity,” Gimenez said in a press release. “Today, I stand with the people of this community and with law enforcement in denouncing this delinquent activity.”

Gimenez went further on Michael Putney's show on channel 10 and said...

“If I were mayor, I’d definitely propose an ordinance to outlaw them throughout Miami-Dade County...Because frankly, Michael, I believe that there’s organized crime behind this.” 

That sounds fantastic, doesn't it?  We were all convinced that upon his election, Gimenez was going to come out punching against the maquinitas and their owners, so what's happened nearly a year later?  As far as I can tell, NOTHING!  One of my sources tells me that since Gimenez was elected, the unit that was making these cases was scaled back, citing budget issues, and it's members have been subsequently reassigned to other cases.  Does that make any sense?  If our new county mayor was really out to get the people behind these machines, then what the hell happened?  Remember, Mayor Gimenez went so far as to publicly proclaim that he believed that "there's organized crime behind this", so what gives?  Gimenez gets elected and all of a sudden the crusade against the machines and their owners goes quiet?

Furthurmore, the judge presiding over this particular case seemed to see through all the defense's bullshit arguments...

“We can go around and around all day long. In my opin­ion, what’s going on is not an amuse­ment game. It’s not an amuse­ment ma­ch­ine; it’s gambling,”

So what happened?  The cops did their work, made their case and the subsequent arrests, the judge hearing the case seemed on board, at this point it's all left to the state attorneys office.  We'll dig around and see what we can find out.