Free Republic

The case of the phantom ballots: an electoral whodunit By Patricia Mazzei pmazzei@MiamiHerald.com TIM CHAPMAN / MIAMI HERALD STAFF About 2,000 rejected absentee ballots at Miami-Dade Elections Department, mostly for lack of signatures or review of signatures from the last election. The first phantom absentee ballot request hit the Miami-Dade elections website at 9:11 p.m. Saturday, July 7. The next one came at 9:14. Then 9:17. 9:22. 9:24. 9:25. Within 2½ weeks, 2,552 online requests arrived from voters who had not applied for absentee ballots. They streamed in much too quickly for real people to be filling them out. They...

November 18, 2012 Recount resumes as noon deadline looms By Christine Stapleton Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Fort Pierce — The St. Lucie County Canvassing Board resumed ballot counting this morning in the tight congressional race between Republican Rep. Allen West and Democrat Patrick Murphy under the watchful eyes of dozens of attorneys and supporter of both candidates. Canvassing board member Tod Lowery, who regularly updates the audience on the process, explained that the board still had write-in ballots and other questionable ballots from 8 days of early voting to review before the noon deadline for the state’s 67 supervisors...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Voters in key states such as Florida and Virginia waited in long lines hours after polls closed Tuesday night to cast ballots, even as politicians and their supporters urged them not to give up despite the long delays. Candidates turned to social media to encourage voters through the long wait.

The Florida chapter of the AFL-CIO appears to be encouraging folks to break the law. In a message on the homepage of their website, the union writes, "There is a mantra that we --at the Florida AFL-CIO-- like to live by, 'Vote Early, Vote'. The mantra of the Florida AFL-CIO encourages illegal activity. There appears to be two federal laws this would violate: 42 USC 1973i(e) and 42 USC § 1973gg–10(2). "The former federal law makes it illegal to vote twice. The latter law prohibits fraudulent voting in a federal election. 18 USC 2 makes it illegal to aid and...

What can be political about Halloween? Especially Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Orlando. Well, guess what? Universal Studios in Orlando this year actually turned a Halloween Horror Nights show into what is obviously a not very subtle Obama campaign rally in which the Romney type candidate declares he lied in the debate and that he shoves grannies off the cliff. Think I'm kidding? Then read the words of Marla Knowles, a blogger at BIZPAC REVIEW, who went to Universal Studios last weekend and reported her unpleasant experience of Universal Studios pushing Obama propaganda and Romney slamming on their customers:...

Videographer James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas caught an official for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign helping who she thought was an Obama supporter set herself up to vote more than once in November. Stephanie Caballero is the regional field director for Obama’s Organizing For America in Houston, Texas. Federal Election Commission documents show, according to Project Veritas, that Caballero is a “salaried employee of the DNC [Democratic National Committee].” Caballero is caught on camera helping the young woman try to vote in Florida and Texas in the upcoming election.

Florida Republicans are outraged after a school district allowed a pro-Obama organization to conduct student voter registration drives and deliver speeches to classes – but denied the Romney campaign similar opportunities.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday, NBC White House correspondent and MSNBC “The Daily Rundown” host Chuck Todd more-or-less predicted that President Barack Obama would win Florida in November, citing the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that gives Obama a five-point edge over Republican candidate Mitt Romney in that state.

<p>FORT PIERCE, Florida — President Barack Obama reputedly loves nothing more than a good old campaign trail hug -- but he may have got more than he bargained for Sunday.</p> <p>Obama was lifted at least a foot in the air in an intense bear hug by hulking pizza shop owner Scott Van Duzer, during a bus tour of Florida.</p>

While the Republican presidential candidates have been battling in Florida and other state primaries, President Barack Obama's re-election campaign has been quietly putting together what aides say will be the biggest grass-roots campaign organization in Florida history. Obama campaign staff members won't give out numbers about their organizing effort — how many paid staff and volunteers, or of the "neighborhood team captains" they say are the linchpin of the effort. Obama, she said, "is a community organizer at heart. Our neighborhood team model is based on people organizing in their neighborhoods." Despite the campaign's reluctance to provide numbers, it's clear...

January 29, 2012 Gingrich's Sunshine State strategy Former Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum reacts

Newt Gingrich will attend a presidential candidate forum Saturday in Winter Park, site of a tea party rally. The rally, one of three events by Tea Party Express today, will be held in front of Aloma Church at 1:30 p.m. The church is at 1815 State Road 436. It is also the location for the First Awake! Presidential Candidate Forum and Q&A. So far, Gingrich is the only candidate who has committed to attend. Amy Kremer, head of Tea Party Express, said her group's bus tour, which started in Jacksonville Saturday morning, will make its third and final stop of...

I can confirm tonight from multiple sources that phone calls are in fact occurring between Republicans in Washington and among evangelical leaders to raise money for Rick Santorum rapidly. The sources tell me that this is not for a Santorum win, though the evangelicals I spoke to continue to hope it is possible. This is to stop Newt Gingrich. One evangelical leader I spoke to said, “If Newt wins, we won’t be able to make family values an issue in the general.” One lobbyist I spoke to said, “They [the GOP leaders in DC] are really nervous about Gingrich and...