Florida election lawsuit exposes loophole in federal voter registration law
Lack of voter verification: A Republican congressional candidate is suing Florida election officials over “clone” voters found on voter rolls and questionable mail-in ballot requests.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/florida-election-lawsuit-exposes-loophole-federal-voter-registration-law
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A Florida election lawsuit has exposed a loophole in federal voter registration law that allows people to register to vote without providing a driver’s license or Social Security number for verification.
A Republican congressional candidate is suing Florida election officials over “clone” voters found on voter rolls and questionable mail-in ballot requests, as the number of votes he lost by is less than the allegedly compromised vote-by-mail ballots. However, the lawsuit also reveals a loophole in both Florida law and federal law that allows people to register to vote without providing either a driver’s license number or Social Security number.
Robert “Rocky” Rochford, a Republican and retired U.S. Navy captain, ran against Rep. Kathy Castor (D) in Florida’s 14th U.S. Congressional District in the November election. Rochford lost the election to Castor, the incumbent, by nearly 58,000 votes.
He initially filed an election contest in late November, based on the number of questionable mail-in ballot requests and “clone” voters. However, he has since dropped the election contest and is now only suing over voter roll issues and the questionable mail-in ballot requests.
According to a January filing for Rochford’s lawsuit in Leon County Circuit Court, he argues that there was “a total of approximately 122,971 compromised vote-by-mail ballots, of which approximately 96,188 were voted” in Florida’s 14th Congressional District general election.
The Amended Complaint claims that the mail-in ballot requests were “compromised” because they were submitted “when the Voter Fraud Protection System was off or being overridden.” The court filings also said that “On September 9, 2024, in Pinellas County alone, 198,166 requests were dumped into the system in Pinellas County, and those requests were made with the Voter Fraud Protection System turned off or somehow overridden.”
Rochford’s pleadings also assert that “This is known as there were 37,495 unacceptable Requests for Vote-by-Mail which were accepted notwithstanding that they did not provide a Driver’s License Number, a Florida Voter Identification Number, or the last 4 digits of a social security number. The only way that those requests without that vital information could have been processed was by having the Voter Fraud Protection System turned off or somehow overridden.”
Duplicate voters
The case also details the “clone” voters that were found on the voter rolls. “An examination of the Voter Roll shows that there is a multitude of ‘clones’ in the lists of the voters who are registered to vote in Florida,” according to court papers. “They are referred to as ‘clones’ because they are either duplicates or near-duplicates except that invariably, they have different voter identification numbers.
The pleadings continued to assert that “By having clones of other voters with unique Voter ID Numbers, the system is open for individuals who can access or ‘hack’ into the government’s computers to cast votes of the dormant clones in a manner with [sic] would be undetectable. Moreover, if this is coupled with the procedures to vote by mail, as in the situation which occurred in the 2024 Election the entire Voter Roll system will be shown to be corrupted.”
Rochford is requesting “a Final Judgment declaring that the Voter Rolls of Florida are corrupted”; that the defendants be required to “investigate all causes for all issues regarding possible clone voters in the systems, aberrations of huge numbers of Mail-In Ballot requests, which are statistically impossible or almost impossible, and the overriding of all safety precautions on the internet”; and “to obtain the discovery as to the Voter Rolls of Pinellas County, Hillsborough County, and of the State of Florida as a whole, and to Order the Defendants to provide access to or produce any and all records related to the Voter Rolls and the voting which was done in 2024.”
One of the issues with some of the questionable mail-in ballot requests comes from a loophole in federal law, which Florida’s law mimics.
Election Integrity Network Founder Cleta Mitchell responded to queries from Just the News on Wednesday, writing that the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) “requires states to create and maintain a computerized statewide list of eligible voters, and it also requires states to take certain verification steps before adding anyone to the computerized list of eligible voters.”
No verification required
“What is SUPPOSED to happen is that anyone who applies to register to vote is supposed to provide a driver’s license number to the election office to confirm residency and identity. If the applicant does not have a driver’s license then the applicant is supposed to provide the last 4 digits of his/her social security number — and then, the election office is supposed to verify the identity of the applicant with the social security Help America Vote Verification database,” Mitchell explained.
However, “IF a person has NEITHER a driver’s license NOR a social security number, under federal law, THAT PERSON IS STILL SUPPOSED TO BE REGISTERED! And the ONLY requirement is for the election office to assign that registrant a unique voter identifier number. That’s it,” she added in her response to Just The News.
Florida’s law requires that a person register to vote with a Florida driver’s license or a Florida identification card. They can also register to vote with a Social Security number if they do not have a license or ID card. However, if a person doesn’t have any of those, then they must affirm their eligibility to vote “in the manner prescribed in the uniform statewide voter registration application,” according to state law.
“In other words, there is no verification required under either federal or state law in order to be accepted as a registered voter,” Mitchell said. “It is a problem that ONLY CONGRESS can fix, as that is the federal law, which is then mirrored by the states. It is terrible. And once Congress fixes the federal statute, then the states must fix their laws as well,” she added.
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Get rid of the voting machine and the electronic voter roll tablets. Sessions has proposed a law to fix elections but does it close the loopholes?
A Single Point of Failure for Freedom: The Hidden Danger to X (Twitter)
The hidden threat to X that has become so pervasive, it’s being investigated by the Trump administration FTC.
https://parkerd.substack.com/p/a-single-point-of-failure-for-freedom
Excerpt:
.....In engineering any kind of system, you always endeavor to avoid what is colloquially called a Single Point of Failure (SPOF), such as a single critical sensor, a single bolt connecting the wing of an aircraft to the fuselage, or a single pin holding the main rotor to the mast of certain rotorcraft. As the name implies, the failure of this part will lead to catastrophic results.
We’re in historic times, with a disintegrating Un-Democratic Party, propaganda media, and left in general in full retreat, all thanks to the efforts of Elon Musk. However, one of the linchpins undergirding this success of freedom could easily be undermined by a growing threat within X (Twitter). This is a single point of failure for freedom and a hidden danger to X (Twitter).
It wouldn’t be as dire of a situation if the load (in engineering terms) were spread among multiple social media platforms, such that were there a fault in one system, the others would shoulder the load defending freedom. But that isn’t the case. There are other microblogging systems, but these aren’t as pervasive, so a failure in X could be devastating. Hence the reasons we’ve been forced by circumstances into raising the alarm.
Arbitrary shadowbanning.
The term “shadowban” is defined as
“to cause (a user or their content) to be hidden from some or all other users usually without the user’s knowledge.”
This is nothing but censorship covered in some Orwellian sparkle. In the case of X, the threat to free speech appears to be arbitrary and random, no matter what you do on the platform. This can be easily verified by a search for the term “temporary label” to find the latest victims of this arbitrary designation. Research into the issue has shown that this has been a threat for quite some time.
It was more than two years ago that Elon Musk @elonmusk announced on X that
Twitter is working on a software update that will show your true account status, so you know clearly if you’ve been shadowbanned, the reason why and how to appeal
2:32 AM · Dec 9, 2022
Despite this, as of last March, the situation had not been resolved. Tech Crunch noted that “X users are still complaining about arbitrary shadowbanning.”
Users of Elon Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) continue complaining the platform is engaging in shadowbanning — aka restricting the visibility of posts by applying a “temporary” label to accounts that can limit the reach/visibility of content — without providing clarity over why it’s imposed the sanctions.
Running a search on X for the phrase “temporary label” shows multiple instances of users complaining about being told they’ve been flagged by the platform; and, per an automated notification, that the reach of their content “may” be affected. Many users can be seen expressing confusion as to why they’re being penalized — apparently not having been given a meaningful explanation as to why the platform has imposed restrictions on their content.
This continued into last July: “X has long been accused of arbitrary shadowbanning — a particular egregious charge for a platform that claims to champion free speech.”
But now the situation has reached a boiling point. Research shows that people are getting these notices right and left with no recourse in appealing these arbitrary actions — not to mention the fact that account suspensions have tripled on X since Musk took over.
If you start up an account, adhere to the instructions from X in selecting accounts to follow, and by chance do this too quickly or select too many, your account will be locked. If you dare to use a word repeatedly in a post, your account will be locked. Or if you just use the system in a way the algorithms consider “unusual,” such as liking a tweet, your account will be locked.
Even worse, when you succeed in restoring your account, the system will often zero out your following count and then later restore it to what it was, causing it to trigger another lockout. All of these actions can earn you the dreaded Temporary Notice, after which it can shadowban your account at any time. I have witnessed all of these take place on my account and searches on the subject in X.
The Federal Trade Commission, led by President Trump’s newly appointed chairman Andrew Ferguson, will conduct an inquiry into these practices.
Today, the Federal Trade Commission launched a public inquiry to better understand how technology platforms deny or degrade users’ access to services based on the content of their speech or affiliations, and how this conduct may have violated the law.
Censorship by technology platforms is not just un-American, it is potentially illegal. Tech firms can employ confusing or unpredictable internal procedures that cut users off, sometimes with no ability appeal the decision.
News reports and actions from the Trump administration indicate that this is a growing concern. If you’ve been shadowbanned, the FTC will want to hear from you. You have until May 21, 2025 to submit a comment. Here’s the link: https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FTC-2025-0023/document
Urgent! Florida About To Give Over ALL (Election) Audit Power To NGO
https://miamiindependent.com/urgent-florida-about-to-give-over-all-audit-power-to-ngo/
Excerpt:
“The essence of tyranny is the enforcement of stupid laws.” Edmund Burke. Say it either way you want; they both mean the same.
Two new bills, SB 1414, and HB 1249, are up for the vote in Tallahassee. Together they control election audits and who may call themselves a “Republican”. These bills seem to have the support of the Florida Supervisors of Election (FSE) Association, yet it is those officials who will be made powerless to secure their elections.
Something does NOT add up.
In the latest legislative offerings, Tallahassee is removing authority to audit from county election officials - Supervisors of Election and County Committee Chairs. from any involvement in post-election audits. These officials, elected by the people are being hamstrung. Perhaps, “castrated” is more accurate.
A hallmark of the Deep State is secret cabals working behind the scenes to take power from the people. Stupid laws.
When a lot of the rest of the nation is following President Trump’s request to do away with machines, and mail-in voting, Florida is heading in the opposite direction.
WHY?
We know that the party structure has been working openly to disenfranchise MAGA Republicans for the better part of the last year. Now, Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (F14) has introduced a bill in the senate, SB1414, and , Rep Black, (FL15), HB 1249 in the House., which are NOT of, by or for the people.
If these two bills become law, not only citizens, but their elected Supervisors of Election in each county will become powerless to be able to AUDIT election results. AND, even to meet under the Republican banner, without conforming to RPOF rules.
First, SB 1414 and election security . . .
This piece of legislation should strike fear in the heart of every citizen of Florida. It is setting up the scenario for stolen elections, and making sure that nothing can ever be proven. It is set so that those who try will run afowl of this law.
SB1414 makes verification - using paper ballots - prior to certification, impossible. Every vote will be turned into a screen shot, and turned over to a third party company, who is not answerable to you, the citizens.
SB1414 turns over the responsibilities of your SOE to an organization, an NGO, which is not part of the government. This organization is Clear Ballot, whose only business is ballot IMAGE counting.
The simplest way to understand an NGO is to know that they are paid with YOUR tax dollars, but you have no say (or often, clear knowledge) of what they are doing.
This same company, Clear Ballot, has been involved in election audit controversies (aka inaccuracies) in several states. Clear Ballot’s technology is currently used in thirteen states - CO, FL, MD, NY, OH, OR, PA, SC, VA, and WA - according to their official website, with specific mentions of expansion and use in states like New York (serving 85% of registered voters by 2021) and certification in Virginia for the ClearVote 2.4 system. The company’s ClearVote system is EAC-certified and has been highlighted for use in various elections and audits across these states, including statewide audits in Maryland and South Carolina, and county-level implementations in Colorado, Florida, and New York.
Please look at that list again. A large majority of those states have been, or are still, involved in election controversies.
Secretary of State Byrd calls the paper ballot the “best record” of votes. Why, then, even consider a bill which locks them away from audit? SB 1414 DOES just that. From the time a voter drops their completed ballot into the box at the polling place, it is never seen again. Screen shots are taken of it (as well as any other piece of paper that someone may want to add, I guess) by machines from an outside vendor, and the original ballots are locked away, not allowed to be seen again.
.....As the law stands currently, SOE’s have the right and Constitutional responsibility to verify that the vote totals coming from their county are accurate. See their own website. Now, Tallahassee doesn’t want it that way, and the state FSE association seems to be supporting that theft of their own Constitutional powers.
Supervisors of Election and County Commission Chairs must step in and speak up, if they take their Consitutional duties seriously. They are the ones whose responsibilities to run honest and clean elections, will be taken from them, under the law. No one would be allowed to check, if they suspect something amiss. The voted ballots would be digitized then locked away, permanently inaccessible, until the 22 month-hence date where they will be disposed of.
Removing any evidence of election crimes makes the crimes disappea\, that is for certain. Easy.
So, citizens of Florida, the Supervisors of Elections that you have chosen in your counties, will no longer be allowed to act as mandated by law, for the responsibilities you chose them to assume, should your legislature pass SB 1414.
WHY?? It behooves Floridians and their elected election officials to find out. NOW, before this law is passed.
Tallahassee is attempting not only to disenfranchise Trump supporters, but also to remove the powers of county election officials, Supervisors of Election (SOE), who are elected by the people in each county. In essence, it is another way to disenfranchise YOU.
This is NOT a totalitarian country. Florida government has NO rights to control with whom their citizens assemble when no laws of safety or health are broken. However, there IS a reason that I’ve been referring to the Tallahassee Legislature as ToTALLYtarian….
Recently, US Rep. Pete Sessions (TX) has proposed a national effort for more secure elections, which he has dubbed, MESA (Make Elections Secure Again). MESA proposes getting rid of machines and early voting, along with a shortened early voting period.
To that I say, I’m glad they are noticing, after all the games of “election fraud-dodge” Congress has played over these last years, but the KEY TO SAFE ELECTIONS IS DECENTRALIZATION, NOT another federal program.