Federal officials are investigating yet another attempt to suppress the vote in Florida. Florida State officials issued a statewide warning on this latest scam. The FBI is working with The Florida Department of Law Enforcement to find the source of hoax letters received by voters in several Florida counties.
According to Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner, voters in several counties report receiving similar letters. The counties include: Brevard, Broward, Collier, Clay, Escambia, Hillsborough, Indian River, Jackson, Lee, Liberty, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pinellas, St. Lucie, Seminole, Sumpter and Volusia counties.
Voters in Central Florida and many other parts of the state are getting letters that question their citizenship. The letters look like they are from official election offices, but they are fake.
Local 6 reports that the voters who received the letters so far are “white, registered Republicans who consistently vote in elections.” Seminole County Supervisor of elections, Mike Ertel, told Local 6:
“You should not expect a letter from your elections office saying, ‘You’re not registered to vote, please don’t go to the polls.’ That’s ridiculous.”
Chris Cate, the communications director for Florida’s Department of State told Local 6, “We are working with the state’s supervisors of elections as well as law enforcement to find the source of these letters and put a stop to them. We have provided all of the information we have received to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.”
The letter contains the election’s name, the resident’s name and address, and a warning casting doubt on the voter’s citizenship. The letter goes on to tell the recipient they will not be eligible to vote unless the letter is returned with an enclosed form within 15 days.
The letter looks official enough to fool some voters. “It looks official,” a Central Florida resident said. “I would think they were full of it because I would ask for someone to prove it,” said another voter when showed a copy of the fraudulent letter.
Watch the video report below.
According to News 4 the letters are postmarked in Seattle Washington.
Florida voters who receive letters postmarked from Seattle Washington, but appear to be from the Elections office, should not open the letter because State officials would like to examine the document for finger prints.
The Florida Division of Elections urges anyone receiving one of the letters to contact its voter fraud hotline at 877-868-3737 or visit Election.dos.state.fl.us.
Update:
Lenny Curry, Chair of the Florida GOP tweeted the following:
Obviously, Mr. Curry didn’t bother to read the article, which pointed out at the time of reporting that the letters in question had gone to Republicans.
It’s also obvious that Mr. Curry doesn’t understand the meaning of maintaining the integrity of the electoral system.
Voter suppression is as Anti-American as it gets, regardless of the political orientation of the victim.
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Marge Berkeyheiser
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 6:03 pm
I see the republican fraud the Democrat voter all we want but when a letter is mailed out to the republican the FBI gets involved. GOTYA!
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Reynardine
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 6:33 pm
No: in fact, I know of these letters being received by at least some white Democrats living in low-income areas. Such people proceeding on the same premise as you, generally dump them in the trashcan without reporting them. I have not received such a letter, but I know they have been delivered to registered voters in the Holly Hill area of Volusia County.
All such communications should be reported to the proper authorities. Only a full demographic of those receiving them can develop a forensic pattern that may lead to the motive and identity of the people behind these forgeries.
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Reynard Vulpes
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 8:36 pm
One of the more clever credibility attacks is to make it appear YOU are being attacked by your opponent. It even has a name.
http://www.truthmove.org/content/false-flag-operations/
Note the second paragraph.
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Reynardine
Oct. 24th, 2012 at 9:21 am
I haven’t yet followed your link, but it did occur to me that these may not be the same letter, and the second batch sent out as a screen. The same advice holds: if you receive any questionable mail, report it. Anything genuinely from your Supervisor of Elections should come from within the county. If it has a questionable postmark, photograph the outside and take it unopened to either the FBI or the FDLE. If you find it is questionable after you open it, slip a clean plastic grocery or produce bag over your hand and, handling it as little as possible, photograph both sides, put it back in an envelope or fold it back the way it was, and deliver it to the FBI or FDLE. In either case, show the photos to the Supervisor of Elections and, if you get the wrong answers, also take them or Email them to whatever local press outlet you trust. I am assuming these are digital photos; store them in your computer or on your flash drive as well, but if you use roll film, have multiple copies printed, date them, and keep a set for yourself. Meanwhile, don’t forget the important part: Vote!
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Donna Phillips
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 6:18 pm
Talk about a phishing attempt at its finest. Target a group of individuals who you KNOW will be out on election day to vote and question their ability. The form probably requests enough personal information to create a nice list of identity theft victims ripe for the picking. It has nothing to do with a persons right to vote, but how quick people will let their guard down to respond to what they know is not true.
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A Walkaway
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 8:58 pm
You know, that makes a lot of sense. The damned crooks know that there have been attempts to thwart people from voting and it got stopped (or slowed down a lot). Just like they did during the Haiti earthquake and Katrina… they could be out to scam someone, and this time by Phishing.
The Republicans are trying to blame Democrats. That may play for their mind-numbed followers, but anyone with half a brain knows that this would blow up and be a big failure.
All they have to do is get a couple of people to send in their information, and the scam is paid for and possibly they put money in their pocket.
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Shiva (Moderator)
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 6:21 pm
You dont need to log in, just put your name and any email address in
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Debbie Frazier
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 7:31 pm
Did the news fail to say they are low income households in precinct that house low income voters? Socio-economics are also used in formulating the equation. Hmmm, what other likely Obama voters can we target? I know, I am overseeing ballot transfer in Palm Beach County, they can try all their little tricks…because you have us as watchdogs. Not gonna work this time, I promise!
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Jo Hargis
Oct. 23rd, 2012 at 10:04 pm
I was going to say this…
“the voters who received the letters so far are “white, registered Republicans who consistently vote in elections.”
..smelled like a big dead fish, until I saw Reynardine say she knows of some low-income Democrats that have received them.
I put absolutely **nothing** past the GOP in Florida. Actually, the GOP anywhere.
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UncaJoe
Oct. 24th, 2012 at 2:12 am
Lenny “Chair of the Florida GOP” Curry’s tweet decoded:
Damn! Why didn’t we think of that…
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MZonkoski
Oct. 24th, 2012 at 11:47 am
Funny, when a Republican, gets a bogus letter…The FBI is Johhny on the spot. When the Ohio GOP does it, “It was just a mistake”….When the GOP gets busted working with Sproul again, and again, gets accused of Fraud, they just fire him, play dumb, and he starts another company, and they hire him back..
Anyone see a pattern here???
Who is the real fruad??
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molly malone
Oct. 24th, 2012 at 9:42 pm
I’m still puzzling over this one.
What was the information asked for on the enclosed form, and to what other uses could it be put?
Where was the enclosed form to be returned? (If recipients were told to return it to the Election Office — why? What purpose would it serve, owing to the fact that it was an illegal missive in the first place?)
How many letters have been located so far, and how much outlay in postage are we talking about here? (Was this an expensive operation or a cheap fly-by-night job?)
What are the demographics of the targeted areas?
(Rich, middle, low income? Predominately Republican/Democrat? Old,young? Education level?)
Sending out letters like this makes no sense without taking ulterior motives into consideration.
So who stands to benefit from something like this?
Gotta confess, right now I haven’t a clue.
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