Election Challenges, Protests, Conspiracy Theories, and Moral Panics

[GMDino]

(03-19-2021, 06:17 PM)TheUberHuber Wrote: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/03/the-arrest-of-an-ex-florida-state-senator-hints-at-a-broader-dark-money-scheme/

(03-20-2021, 02:02 AM)Dill Wrote: Miami police arrested former Republican state Sen. Frank Artiles on Thursday and charged him with orchestrating a plot to siphon votes from a sitting Democratic state senator by paying a man with a similar last name to run a fake campaign. The scheme seems to have worked: In November, the incumbent, José Javier Rodríguez, lost his seat by the incredibly thin margin of around 30 votes to his Republican challenger, Ileana Garcia. The man Artiles recruited to run as an independent—an auto parts dealer named Alex Rodriguez, who didn’t live in the district—picked up more than 6,000 votes. (In his concession speech, José Javier Rodríguez called for a full investigation into the race.)

According to an arrest affidavit, Artiles paid Rodriguez, who he’d known for more than 20 years, $50,000 to enter the race. Rodriguez didn’t campaign, respond to inquiries from the media, or do anything beyond filling out the required forms for his candidacy. In fact, doing nothing in exchange for the cash was part of the pitch Artiles made to Rodriguez, the affidavit alleges.


NO WAY this could happen if voter ids were required.  

Ha!  I had shared the story of the raid on his home for evidence in the "what will help the GOP thread".  That was fast, and not totally unxpected.