Read this from Florida :
Unaltered Document:
Let's read the article AGAIN:
- ... The altered forms surfaced in Broward, Santa Rosa, Citrus and Okaloosa counties and were reported to federal prosecutors to review for possible election fraud as Florida counties completed a required recount in three top races.
But an email obtained by the USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida shows that Florida Democrats were organizing a broader statewide effort beyond those counties to give voters the altered forms to fix improper absentee ballots AFTER the Nov. 5 deadline.
Democratic party leaders provided staffers with copies of a form, known as a "cure affidavit," that had been modified to include an inaccurate Nov. 8 deadline.
One Palm Beach Democratic activist said in an interview the idea was
- to have voters fix and submit as many absentee ballots as possible with the altered forms
in hopes of later including them in vote totals if a judge ruled such ballots were allowed.
An email that Jennifer Kim, Florida Democratic Party’s central deputy field director, sent Nov. 7 to party workers instructing them
- how to give voters an altered form to fix signature problems with their absentee ballots after the state deadline.
The altered forms have turned up in several counties and have been turned over to federal prosecutors to review for possible election fraud.
... State Democratic Party Chair Terrie Rizzo wrote on a private Facebook page
- that efforts to fix ballots should be focused on provisional ballots, which were handled separately with a Nov. 8 deadline for voters to fix any issues.
"Hi all. Once again, to clarify: the activity taking place today is for provisional ballots.
Not absentee ballots," Rizzo's note read.
... It is not clear how many altered forms were sent across the state, but Kim's email outlined a step-by-step process for volunteers and staffers to follow
in order to get as many voters as possible to submit the altered form three days AFTER the deadline.
“The voters MUST print out the form and sign it by hand,” Kim wrote in the email that attached copies of the altered forms in both English and Spanish.
The email also included a sheet with the contact information of all election supervisors in the state.
The document Kim attached to her email was an altered state form to fix an absentee ballot with signature problems.
The altered form modified the original state document
- by replacing the deadline identified as
with a new deadline "no later than 5 p.m. Thursday Nov. 8."
Kim's email instructed staff and volunteers
- to use the list of voters to contact about their signature problems on the absentee ballots,
to complete the form on the phone with the voter
and to email the completed form to the voter.
The voter was instructed to print the form and to sign it.
And Kim's email instructed the party workers to tell voters
- to deliver the signed form to their local election office.
Kim told staffers that voters should reply back to them AFTER they delivered the forms at the party's email, vote@floridadems.org.
That email was also included in documents Florida election officials referred to federal prosecutors in connection to the altered forms received by Broward and the other three counties.
“If needed (party) staff or volunteer should go pick up their affidavit and deliver it for them if they are not able to deliver by 5 p.m. Thursday.
- (Each office should identify a runner that can do this.),” her email states.
“We will also follow with a tracking system for people who we send affidavits," Kim told staffers.
Pam Keith, a Palm Beach County Democratic activist, came under fire Wednesday after Republicans circulated a screenshot of a Nov. 7 deleted tweet
- she sent to about 22,000 of her Twitter followers,
encouraging people to fix their absentee ballots two days after the state-mandated deadline.
Keith told the USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida that she was aware the deadline to submit "cure affidavits" had expired
but she told people there was still time to fix their absentee ballots.
She then directed voters to email Katharine Priegues, a field organizer with the Florida Democratic Party,
with the subject line "I want to help" for instructions on what to do.
- "I was trying to show that if given notice, voters would try to fix their ballots," Keith said.
"I was putting the word out because I was anticipating a challenge of that deadline (in court)."
... Federal law defines election fraud to include
- preventing voters from participating in a federal election
- "through such tactics as disseminating false information"
Wallace, who is handling federal election complaints in Florida, declined to comment when contacted about an investigation into the altered forms.
“Making or using an altered form is a criminal offense under Florida law,” wrote Bradley McVay, the state department’s lawyer, when he referred the altered forms circulated in Broward and three other counties to federal prosecutors.
“More fundamentally, altering a form in a manner that provides the incorrect date for a voter to cure a defect
- (or an incorrect method as it related to provisional ballots)
then we must prosecute these criminals,
and PUNISH THEM with fines and jail time
to the MAXIMUM EXTENT OF THE LAW !