Was Another Democrat Member of Congress Elected with the help of Fraudulent Votes?

It seems likely that once again a Democrat member of Congress was a beneficiary of vote fraud.  A week ago:

Sonia Leticia Solis, 54, has been charged with voting more than once in connection with the 2012 primary runoff election held in Cameron County on July 31, 2012, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today.

Although we do not know who Ms. Solis committed the fraud for, we do know she did this for an election that involved a  “US House of Representatives” runoff:

She is accused of using the “absentee ballots of Samuel Pedraza, Francisco Pedraza, Cynthia Pedraza, Dannie Vargas and Issic Guerra in the July 31, 2012, primary runoff election, which was held in part for the purpose of selecting candidates for the office of the United States House of Representatives,” the indictment states.

Runoffs can be very close elections, although Filemon Vela won this rather easily.  If this involves Rep. Vela, he will join Rep. Garcia as at least the second Democrat Member of the current freshman class of Congress elected in part with illegal votes/activities.  

Another Aide Resigns in Congressman Joe Garcia's Voter Fraud Mess

A second aide to Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Fla., resigned last week as part of a continuing voter fraud investigation that continues to plague the freshman Congressman’s office.

As previously reported, Florida election law states that only voters, their immediate family members or their legal guardians are allowed to submit requests for absentee ballots.  The identified requests were not filled because the elections department’s software flagged them as suspicious.

A Miami Herald investigation found that hundreds of 2,552 fraudulent requests for the Aug. 14 primaries originated from Internet Protocol addresses in Miami. The investigation discovered that the ballot requests targeted Democratic voters in Garcia’s congressional district indicating a concerted effort by a computer hacker or hackers.

In the primary, the campaign of Romero Roses, one of Garcia’s competitors, raised concerns about the odd absentee-ballot requests in the race. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle said her office has targeted absentee voting, which she considers problematic.

Congressman Garcia tried to initially explain the “situation” by saying:

“I think it was a well-intentioned attempt to maximize voter turnout”… “I explain it with the reckless abandon that we play politics in South Florida,” he said.  “It shouldn’t be that way.”

The only intention by Congressman Garcia and his campaign was to win the primary by any means necessary even if it meant stealing an election.

The aide who resigned was Congressman Garcia’s communications director, Giancarlo Sopo, who submitted his resignation only weeks after Garcia’s chief of staff, Jeffrey Garcia (no relation to the congressman) resigned at the end of May.

“Giancarlo informed me on Friday that he was resigning,” Rep. Garcia said in a written statement to CQ Roll Call. ”I thanked him for his service to our office. I understand that he is cooperating with investigators and hope that this will give him an opportunity to resolve this matter.”

The Miami Herald reported earlier that Sopo had been placed on unpaid administrative leave last month, only days after Miami-Dade prosecutors and police raided his cousin’s home in connection with the scheme to request ballots online for nearly 500 unsuspecting voters in the Aug. 14 Democratic primary. Garcia said at the time that he did not immediately fire Sopo because he told Garcia he wasn’t involved in the plot.

In the plot Sopo recruited his friends or family to assist, Sopo’s Attorney Gus Lage presumably either to compile or submit the ballot requests.

In a separate absentee-ballot case, investigators on June 13 raided the home of a Juan Pablo Baggini, a political worker for the mayoral campaign of Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez, for submitting 20 absentee-ballot requests from his computer. Sopo also volunteered in Suarez’s campaign in January.

Despite winning by a comfortable margin, Congressman Garcia remains one of the most vulnerable House Democrats of the 2014 cycle. House Republicans have made Florida’s 26th District a top priority, and the local GOP started talking up potential Garcia challengers as early as January.

Still, many top Democrats are sticking by the congressman, as evidenced by Democratic strategist James Carville sending out a fundraising email on his behalf.

As this voter fraud scandal continues to unravel it will likely show the true depth of corruption involved and how for some campaigns they are willing to do anything necessary to win, even break the law. This is why elections need to be carefully watched so that we can ensure the winner is really the winner. 

FL Vote Fraud Congressman: "Well-intentioned attempt to maximize voter turnout."

As previously reported, Congressman Joe Garcia is currently embroiled in an election scandal after allegedly trying to steal the primary election in the Florida’s Congressional District 26. It caused his chief of staff to resign and last Friday his communications director and 2012 campaign manager's homes were raided by the Miami Dade state attorney’s office.  The vote fraud scandal continues to grow. Garcia has since tried to push the focus off of his own involvement and blamed South Florida politics:

“I think it was a well-intentioned attempt to maximize voter turnout”… “I explain it with the reckless abandon that we play politics in South Florida,” he said.  “It shouldn’t be that way.”

Garcia may know more than he originally led the press and constituents to believe.  Florida’s Shark Tank reported: 

“During Garcia’s past failed Congressional campaigns, Garcia built up a reputation of being a “hands-on” type of candidate, who insisted on being apprised on all aspects of his campaign.”  

 If this is true, it seems like a far stretch from the truth for Garcia to claim he was unaware of the scheme,

“I’m shocked and disappointed about this,” and that “This is something that hit me from left field. Until today, I had no earthly idea this was going on.”

Since the raid, Joe Garcia's communications director Giancarlo Sopo has been placed on paid administrative leave.  The question is why?  What does Sopo know about the vote fraud scheme that has Congressman Garcia afraid to fire him and why is Joe Garcia standing by his staffer? 

Sopo wrote news releases, advertising scripts and speeches for his 2012 campaign, however Sopo’s compensation does not appear in Garcia’s campaign reports.  Joe Garcia, who has hired an attorney to conduct an internal investigation, was unable to say why Sopo was not paid directly: “That’s part of what we have to figure out.” If Garcia didn’t pay Sopo, who did?

Katie Prill, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee released a statement stating:

“Congressman Garcia needs to stop with the slippery double talk and finally explain why he is allowing one of his top staffers to remain on his taxpayer-funded salary while being investigated for breaking the law.” 

It’s true.  And others are worried it may have spread to their own county.  Miami-Dade School Board member Carlos Curbelo, called on the Monroe County state attorney to also investigate potential fraud. Congressional District 26 runs from Kendall to Key West.

“The voters of Monroe County deserve to know if they, too, were victimized by Mr. Garcia and his campaign,” Curbelo said in a statement.

Curbelo is correct.  These troubling allegations deserve to be fully investigated as Garcia's chief of staff also worked for the campaign that narrowly defeated Rep. Allen West.  Vote fraud is real, it exists and needs to be stopped with open, fair, and honest elections.  Vote fraud cannot be dismissed as a "well-intentioned attempt to maximize voter turnout," it is a crime.