Florida has created a new Office of Election Crimes and Security (OECS) which has conducted investigations throughout the state and has recently uncovered enough evidence of systemic ballot harvesting in Orlando that it has recommended state law enforcement conduct an official criminal review.
Ballot harvesting occurs when political operatives gather absentee ballots from voters at their homes and then drop them off at a polling location to be counted. This practice can garner many votes for a a candidate especially if the political operatives are only collecting from a single party. In a handful of states this practice is legal, but most states have outlawed this practice in order to prevent fraud and provide voters with confidence in the election system.
Recently Just The News reported a former candidate for Orange County Commissioner, Cynthia Harris, has filed a sworn affidavit with the Florida Secretary of State’s Office which described a wide spread systemic ballot harvesting operation in the Orlando area triggering the OECS investigation.
According to Harris, “what happens is, in our community, when absentee ballots are mailed, you, the candidate, or any political party can find out when the absentee ballots are mailed and to whom. What happens is these ballot harvesters, they know which batch has gone out, they go to the door and they ask you for your absentee ballot. Well, in communities that don’t look like me [aka white communities], no one does this,” said Harris, who is an African American. “But in our community, it’s kind of like an accepted practice that the man is coming by to pick up my absentee ballot, or the lady is coming to pick up my absentee ballot.”
Harris went on to say “even recorded a ballot broker coming to her home in 2017 to collect her ballot, and obtained the script that harvester was given by her bosses to make the pitch for a voter to turn over their ballot.”
Harris alleged that the systemic ballot harvesting operation is funded by progressive organizations. Its also worth noting that Harris herself, is a registered Democrat.
Her sworn affidavit also alleges that the collection of third-party ballots has been occurring for years and some voting activists are even paid $10 per ballot collected. She alleges liberal leaning organizations dispatch ballot harvesters into communities of color in order to pressure them into voting.