How do we ensure the integrity of absentee/early voting?

The questions Renee raises about what happens to the ballots when you vote early are EXTREMELY important ones to ask.

This is the key to how the election was stolen in Alachua.

There were many aspects of what the City's election officials did to tamper with the election so as to ensure the outcome to James Lewis for his 40th consecutive year on the commission - but the most problematic, and what I first observed and thus was able to see there was a problem, was with the "early votes" and the "absentee votes."

In Florida, as in most places, there are two possible ways of voting PRIOR TO election day: 1) Early Voting; and 2) Absentee Ballot.

But in Alachua - what they did was to (mis)use the absentee ballot process AS IF it were early voting. They had no official (and there are statutory procedures for this) early voting. But they "encouraged" people to vote "early" - through the use of absentee ballots.

The Supervisor of Elections, who was the Deputy City Clerk (under the Clerk - Clovis Watson - in one of his several jobs), was "in control" of all of the absentee ballots and the process.

They were kept in his office. And thus he could take ballots out, put them in, and do whatever he liked with them.

Thus in order for this part of the election to be proper - you had to TRUST Alan Henderson (the Deputy Clerk) and to BELIEVE that only Alan Henderson could access that box of absentee ballots.

What we learned in the Alachua election - is that neither one of those two assumptions necessary for the fairness of the election could be relied upon.

So the question has to be - how do you ensure that this kind of thing cannot happen in your local elections.

Remember - elections are stolen locally - not nationally.

Charles Grapski

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