Fraudster attempts to register dozens of dead Democrats as voters in Broward
Authorities have uncovered an attempt to register dozens of dead people as Democratic voters in Broward County.
Though officials said no mail-in ballots were requested or cast under the falsified voter IDs, the scheme exposes weaknesses in Florida’s voter registration process, which relies partially on the honor system.
An unknown person in Columbia, S.C., submitted at least 54 new voter applications in July in the same neat handwriting to the Broward elections office, several in each of 19 envelopes. Many of the voters were elderly, and had recently died in the Northeast.
Almost all of them were flagged by Broward elections office staff as suspicious, and turned over to the Broward State Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors have been watching since August, in a sting operation to catch the culprit, internal correspondence shows.
“We cannot comment on an ongoing, active criminal investigation,” State Attorney’s Office Spokeswoman Paula McMahon said.
At least three of the applications evaded detection, and were indeed added to the Broward voter rolls in July. Two of people had died in June, the Sun Sentinel found.
Broward Elections Supervisor Pete Antonacci revealed the fraud when the Sun Sentinel inquired this week about three mysterious voter ID cards sent to a Davie man’s home. He concluded they were part of the larger scam. All the voter ID cards were sent to strangers' homes in the same Davie neighborhood.
“This is an organized effort by someone who knew a little bit about Florida law but not a lot, and had a scheme to either undermine the Florida registration system with fake voters, or intended to vote 50 times," Antonacci said.
Registering dead or fraudulent voters is illegal, but not difficult, the scheme shows. Each application was blank where driver license and social security numbers were to be filled in.
Actual voting under the false registrations would be much harder. All the applications were submitted as new registrations on Broward’s voter rolls, so the voter would have to show identification before voting, or when mailing in a ballot, Antonacci said.
The voters would be classified as a “MARG,” or “Mail Registrant” who did not submit the required identification.
“It would have been another layer of fraudulent activity in order for them to vote,” Broward elections spokesman Steven Vancore said. “They did not vote.”
Pete Fisher, a registered Republican who lives in Davie, said he received three voter ID cards in the mail about a week ago, and he did a little Internet research.
“:Sure enough," Fisher said, "they were all dead.”
One of them was a 104-year-old woman who died in Naples in June. Her son was aghast that her identity had been stolen. He said he’d notified officials in July to remove her from voter rolls. She had no ties to Broward County.
Antonacci said there is a lag time when a voter dies, before elections officials are notified. The scammer appeared to take advantage of it.
“This is one of the weaknesses,” Antonacci said.
“The system is based on the honor system, and the honor system is supposedly bolstered by the fact that if you lie on one of these applications, it’s a crime,” he said, adding that he knows of no such prosecutions. "With determination, you can muscle your way in.”
Another ID sent to Fisher was that of a 77-year-old Newtown, Conn., woman who died June 24, and was registered to vote in Broward one month later. The third was a 90-year-old man. A man with the same name and date of birth is listed in Lee County as a registered Republican.
Fisher alerted the Broward County Republican Party, telling them, “I think I found something.”
Richard DeNapoli, Republican state committeeman, contacted the Sun Sentinel. The Sun Sentinel then inquired about the fraud Wednesday.
“We always try to remain vigilant about protecting the integrity of the vote," DeNapoli said. “It’s definitely concerning. It proves that there are bad actors out there, and I’m glad they were stopped.”
Antonacci, a Republican appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, said he would forward the additional three fraudulent voting applications to the State Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors there asked Antonacci to go ahead and activate the 51 fraudulent voter IDs that he flagged to them in August, so they could watch for any ballot requests and trace the ballot to the fraudster, according to a letter from Assistant State Attorney Tim Donnelly.
The applications "appear to have been written by the same person,” Donnelly wrote, theorizing the person would apply for mail-in ballots. The deadline to request a ballot was Oct. 24.
Donnelly noted in his letter that the most serious potential violation was criminal use of personal identification, which would carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, for the 30 or more counts involved in this case.
In an Oct. 22 email, the State Attorney’s Office noted that only five of the 51 voters had actually been activated in the voter rolls, for the proposed sting operation. The office had been unable to determine who sent the applications.
At least 30 of the original 51 names were confirmed to be dead people, the email said. Without more personal information, the office couldn’t confirm whether the additional 21 were alive.
Brittany Wallman can be reached at bwallman@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4541. Follow her on Twitter @BrittanyWallman
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