State attorney looks into Orange, Osceola ballots

Officials worry that a possible ballot stuffing scheme could tangle up the election process.

©Associated Press
November 1, 2002

ORLANDO -- The state attorney's office is investigating suspected ballot box stuffing schemes in Orange and Osceola counties.

Nearly 100 "questionable ballot request" complaints were received recently in the two counties, leading investigators to suggest fake absentee ballots might be cast.

The fear is that illegal ballots could be dumped in the counties' election offices on Nov. 5, potentially affecting results, state attorney spokesman Randy Means said.

"We know something is going on. And, we know someone is trying to corrupt the vote process with absentee ballots," Means said. "There's no doubt in our mind that there's some campaign . . . trying to cast an illegal ballot."

Possible ballot scam scenarios involve mailing in falsified registration forms or altering reregistration forms that legitimate voters filled out, officials said. Also, inventing voters or steering absentee ballot requests to the wrong address could allow illegal ballots to be cast, officials said.

Means would not say what campaigns or individuals were thought to be involved, but he said just one state race was generating complaints.

But Wednesday, state attorney investigator Roger D. Floyd sent letters to state Senate District 19 candidates Tony Suarez, a Republican, and Gary Siplin, a Democrat, related to similar complaints about illegal changes to party affiliations on voter registration cards.

According to the letters, investigators began receiving complaints that supporters for each campaign may have intentionally changed party affiliations on voter registration cards.

Both allegations were related to registrations before the September primary.

In Siplin's letter, Floyd said a woman complained that she put an "X" in the "no party affiliation" spot on her registration form when she filled it out. But when she received her voter card in the mail, it said she was a Democrat. She suspects someone later checked the Democratic box, the letter said.

Siplin's attorney, Allen "A. Daniel" Holland, said more information and proof of the actual card was needed to respond to the complaint. He had not seen the card.

The Suarez complaint letter outlines similar party-changing allegations.

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