Ballot harvesting uncovered in Florida
Florida’s new Office of Election Crimes and Security (OECS) has collected enough evidence of jaw-dropping systemic ballot harvesting in the Orlando area to recommend state law enforcement open a full criminal investigation. Ballot harvesting — the collection and casting of third-party ballots — can lead to fraud and is illegal in Florida.
Investigative news site Just The News obtained a statement from the Florida Department of State, confirming the OECS investigation:
“The Florida Department of State, Office of Election Crimes and Security (OECS) was made aware of this issue around September 1, 2022,” the department said. “After further inquiry, OECS received additional information related to the allegation on October 17, 2022, and performed a preliminary investigation.
“Since OECS is an investigative entity and does not [have] authority to make arrests, the office forwarded the complaint to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for possible violation of section 104.0616, Florida Statutes,” it added.
Just The News reports that the OECS investigation was launched after Cynthia Harris, a former candidate for Orange County Commissioner, filed a sworn affidavit with the Florida Secretary of State’s office. In her affidavit, Harris described a long-standing, systemic ballot-harvesting operation in the Orlando area’s African-American communities. On Wednesday night, Harris appeared on Just the News, No Noise to discuss the electoral exploitation of black communities that she says has been going on for years.
“So what happens is, in our community, when absentee ballots are mailed, you, the candidate, or any political party can find out when the absentee ballots are mailed and to whom. What happens is these ballot harvesters, they know which batch has gone out, they go to the door and they ask you for your absentee ballot,” said Harris. “Well, in communities that don’t look like me [aka white communities], no one does this,” noted Harris, who is black. “But in our community, it’s kind of like an accepted practice that the man is coming by to pick up my absentee ballot, or the lady is coming to pick up my absentee ballot.”
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Just the News reports:
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"You know, it's just utterly ridiculous that people don't understand that once that ballot leaves your hand and it's not placed in the mailbox, or it's not directly given to the supervisor of elections, you don't know where it goes," she said. "It's possible that they throw them away. We've seen evidence of that.
"You see them steam open the ballots and then they mismark them so that if it's not for their candidate, then that ballot is spoiled. So when people think that the numbers are low, it's really not low, it's just that someone has intercepted before it gets to the proper authorities."
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Ballot harvesting is illegal in many jurisdictions for the reasons explained by Just the News.
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