New report finds a 'shadow candidate' in Florida is under investigation

[SheltieLover]

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/11/new-report-finds-a-shadow-candidate-in-florida-is-under-investigation/

New report finds a ‘shadow candidate’ in Florida is under investigation

Published 1 min ago on November 23, 2020By Alex Henderson, AlterNet

This year, one of the GOP victories in Florida came when Ileana Garcia, co-founder of Latinas for Trump, defeated incumbent Democrat José Javier Rodríguez in a state Senate race. It was a narrow victory, however, and Miami Herald journalists Samantha J. Gross and Ana Ceballos are reporting that Rodriguez has demanded an investigation of a third-party candidate, Alex Rodríguez.

In that race, Alex Rodríguez (unrelated to José Javier Rodríguez) received more than 6,300 votes, which was a big deal given how close the race was. Garcia defeated José Javier Rodríguez by a mere 34 votes, and there has been speculation that Alex Rodríguez was planted as a spoiler to take votes away from the incumbent Democrat.

'Alex Rodriguz' candidacy appeared to exist for only one reason: to suck votes away from incumbent José Javier Rodríguez, who shares the same surname,” according to Gross and Ceballos. “The incumbent lost by just 34 votes, and he is now calling for an investigation into Alex Rodriguez — and whoever may have put him up to run.

More at link.

[Tribalceltic]

1. They just cannot win without cheating!

[SheltieLover]

7. And they know it!

[AkFemDem]

2. Verrry similar to...

A scheme in 2018 in Virginia, Scott Taylor’s (R incumbent) campaign helped a disgraced (criminal record and more) dem get enough signatures to go on the ballot as an independent to steal votes from Elaine Luria (D). In the end; the plot was revealed, the faux candidate whose name I forget was taken off the ballot by a judge, people went to jail as I recall, Taylor lost his re-election bid and Luria won (and just won re-election against Taylor in a rematch 2020)

It’s so slimy how far these people will go to corrupt an election!!!!

[AkFemDem]

4. Yikes I forgot

That Taylor’s staffers actually went so far as to forge signatures to get the 3rd candidate on the ballot! ThTs what they were indicted for.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/taylor-aide-fraud/2020/09/09/eb652ed2-f2a1-11ea-999c-67ff7bf6a9d2_story.html%3foutputType=amp

[SheltieLover]

5. They know they cannot win without cheating!

Ty for sharing. I did not know this!

[DanieRains]

3. It Doesn't Matter If Crimes Were Committed

Republicans never go to jail for election related crimes.

Heck, even Manafort is a free man.

Stone, and all the rest are walking around.

[SheltieLover]

6. For now...

[triron]

8. How is this even legal?

[SheltieLover]

10. Likely isn't!

[wnylib]

16. It's sneaky and it sucks, but how can it be

illegal for a 3rd party candidate to run?

[SheltieLover]

17. Someone must think so to be investigating.

[Tommymac]

21. It's called Election Fraud. AFAIK it is a felony. Shadow Candidates have a history, common scam.

Read about this somewhere else, reportedly the Shadow had a fake address, phone, and no one could locate him.

That may have changed. Regardless if a candidate or party supports such a person with the sole intent of driving votes away from the real opponent it is a crime. Especially if the names are very similar, which is the case and the point of most of these election scams.

[wnylib]

26. Thanks.

[hurl]

9. I cringe a little at stories like these

My opinion is not likely to be popular here, but I believe that votes don't 'belong' to a candidate. They belong to the voter alone. Voters may well vote for terrible reasons, but votes 'belong' to voters and not candidates. No votes were 'taken' from the incumbent in this election. They may well have been given by voters based on bad information, but they were never taken, because taken implies ownership.

[stillcool]

11. reminds me of the butterfly-ballot...

when Pat Buchanan got all those votes from West Palm Beach. They owned their votes, but because of a ballot style their votes did not go to the intended target. Funny how the courts have ruled about whose vote counts, and whose responsible for thousands of people making the same mistake in the same county. No remedy for voters. They gave their ballots away. Why make ballots clear? Why not allow someone from another county, with the same last name appear on the ballot? He who cheats best wins.

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/butterfly-did-it-aberrant-vote-buchanan-palm-beach-county-florida

[progressoid]

20. Sadly, the butterfly ballot was designed by a Democrat.

[moose65]

29. Yeah, that was insane

I just read an article to refresh my memory on that again. An estimated 2800 voters in Palm Beach County accidentally voted for Pat Buchanan when they meant to vote for Gore. Also, and I didn't remember this, but there were over 19,000 ballots in Palm Beach County that had more than one person punched for President. And there were 10s of thousands of other ballots in Florida that didn't register a vote at all for President.

That election was a turning point for this country - the triumph of the Gingrich Republicans, although Newt had quit the House by then. When I think of all that has been lost in those 20 years, it makes me sad. At the end of the Clinton presidency, the CBO was projecting surpluses as far as 10 years out. We wouldn't have had Roberts or Alito on the Supreme Court, and I believe that 9/11 probably wouldn't have happened had Gore been president. Such a waste.

[TimeToGo]

12. I mean only sort of

But, a scheme is a scheme is a scheme

I suspect we haven’t heard the last of this

[ecstatic]

19. Some people probably only remembered his last name and were thrown off

by 2 candidates with the same last name. An unknown spoiler candidate receiving 6300 votes is a big deal. I hope they fully investigate. If no wrongdoing is found, so be it. But they shouldn't turn a blind eye to it. JMO.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

25. That's why there are investigations -- to determine if it was election fraud.

[Poiuyt]

13. What can be done at this point?

[judesedit]

14. New election for that Florida Senate seat

[SheltieLover]

15. Yup!

[Marie Marie]

18. They are shrewd.

Ratfuckers!

[mountain grammy]

22. Thanks for posting

I definitely think Florida deserves more scrutiny.

[SheltieLover]

23. Yw

As does KY!

[mountain grammy]

24. Agree

[radius777]

27. Saw this on CNN, there were several shadow candidates

funded by dark money PACS that spent over $500k. They printed flyers promoting the fake candidates as progressive independents to siphon off votes from 3 Dem state senate candidates, all of which lost narrowly.

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2020/11/11/evidence-suggests-several-state-senate-candidates-were-plants-funded-by-dark-money/
MIAMI – Why would candidates for Florida Senate seats do no campaigning, no fundraising, have no issue platforms, nor make any effort to get votes?

Local 10 News has found evidence to suggest three such candidates in three Florida Senate district races, two of them in Miami Dade County, were shill candidates whose presence in the races were meant to syphon votes from Democratic candidates.

Comparisons of the no-party candidates' public campaign records show similarities and connections that suggest they are all linked by funding from the same dark money donors, and part of an elaborate scheme to upset voting patterns.

[malaise]

28. Two of them - More here

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2020/11/23/following-the-money-behind-two-apparent-shill-candidates-in-state-senate-races/

KENDALL, Fla. – As investigators look into two candidates that were possible plants in state Senate races for District 37 and District 39, the bigger issue for voters remains finding out who might have put them up to it, and who was funding the dark effort.

Local 10 has found that both candidates are connected to family that includes Republican strategists and campaign flyer printers.

One of them pretended he was someone else to Local 10′s Glenna Milberg, another insisted to her that it was his dream to run for state Senate.

Now, both are being investigated as possible shill candidates, plants to pull votes from democrats in two South Florida state Senate races.

Local 10 looked into the one political action committee (PAC) that funded them both.

Our Florida PAC was created just a month before the election. Its address is a UPS Store in Kendall.

Although the listing says “Suite 502”, it’s just a mailbox inside UPS.


The PAC’s chair and treasurer is listed as Sierra Olive, who failed to file required reports and didn’t return any calls. Olive may be a shill too.

The PAC’s only expenditure went to one campaign materials printer owned by a man named Luis Rodriguez, who used to work at Matrix2 in Doral, where a former colleague says they had also done political printing, for Luis’s stepson Alex Alvarado.
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Way more at link

It is time to lock up these people

[BadGimp]

30. Any thoughts on the legal issues here?

What could potentially happen, why and how?