Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has asked Florida State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle to investigate instances of elderly Democratic voters finding their registered party affiliations to have changed to Republican without them knowing. A spokesperson for the county said late last week that Levine Cava “sent an official request to the State Attorney to investigate recent reports of voter registration fraud to ensure the integrity of the elections process.” Affected residents live at a building called Haley Sofge Towers, which is a public housing complex in the community known as Little Havana, and in addition to Levine Cava’s calls for an investigation, Democratic leaders in the state including Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and state Sen. Annette Taddeo have also pushed for a probe into what happened.
Miami-Dade's Democratic mayor is asking prosecutors to investigate claims of voter fraud after elderly residents in Little Havana said their party affiliations were changed — to Republican — without their knowledgehttps://t.co/WHDyTIiU9D
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 7, 2022
As Levine Cava troublingly put it, “Under the alleged guise of voter renewal efforts, canvassers entered the building and engaged with elderly residents, who claim they did not approve sudden changes to their party affiliation.” Individuals who interacted with elderly residents of the area and got them to apparently submit signatures which were used to shore up the registration changes were affiliated with the Republican Party of Florida — and it’s late last year that the number of Florida voters registered with the Republican Party surpassed the number registered as Democrats for the first time, suggesting that at least certain conservative operatives could have used deceptive tactics to get there. A report about this problem apparently initially emerged last December.
New: National Archives says in statement they removed 15 boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago: “Trump’s representatives have informed NARA that they are continuing to search for additional Presidential records.”
— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) February 7, 2022
Levine Cava noted in her missive to the local State Attorney that the voters who were affected by whatever exactly happened had their situations helped by local authorities. As she explained it, discussing instances of apparently affected voters coming forward: “In every instance, [Miami-Dade] Department [of Elections] Director Christina White and her staff immediately reported the case to [Fernandez-Rundle’s] office… After reporting the incident, the Department staff would contact the voter to help correct the record and offer any other assistance.” Notably, Fried — who is among the Democrats hoping to unseat Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in this year’s midterm elections — directed her request for an investigation to the U.S. Justice Department, telling Attorney General Merrick Garland that she is “especially concerned about the civil rights implications of this reported disenfranchisement because the victims are elderly, low income, and many do not speak English.”
“‘The [world leaders] I did best with were the tyrants,’ Trump said at an event in December, citing Kim Jong-un. ‘For whatever reason, I got along great with them.’” https://t.co/UGQQyzuOgs
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) February 7, 2022
The Republican Party of Florida’s Executive Director Helen Aguirre Ferré insisted that the party “is working to register new voters and conducts its voter registration operations in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations” — which is a pretty vague statement. Meanwhile, Florida Republicans recently saw through the enactment of a swiftly challenged law containing a raft of suppressive changes to the electoral process, meaning that this isn’t the only front for concern. That law includes provisions like new restrictions on the use of drop-boxes for mail-in ballots; under the new restrictions, the boxes are only allowed to be in use (unless they’re at an office of a supervisor of elections) during hours that early, in-person voting is also available. The law, as originally passed, also demands that each box be supervised in-person, and obviously, that threatens the ability to put the boxes into use because of the strain on resources that’s required.
National Archives confirms in a statement that they had to retrieve 15 (!!!) boxes of Trump presidential records from Mar a Lago in January of this year.
— Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) February 7, 2022
