Candidate pleads guilty in alleged Florida vote scam

Discussion in 'Elections & Campaigns' started by Durandal, Aug 25, 2021.

  1. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

    Joined:
    May 25, 2012
    Messages:
    55,518
    Likes Received:
    27,044
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Candidate pleads guilty in alleged Florida vote scam
    A sham candidate for the Florida Legislature pleaded guilty to being part of a vote siphoning scheme in last year’s election

    FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A sham candidate for the Florida Legislature pleaded guilty Tuesday to being part of a vote siphoning scheme in last year's election and will testify against a former Republican state senator who prosecutors say ran it.

    Alex Rodríguez agreed to testify against former Sen. Frank Artiles after pleading guilty in Miami-Dade County to accepting illegal campaign donations and lying on campaign documents. He will receive three years probation if he cooperates, including a year of house arrest. He had faced a possible 20-year prison sentence.

    Prosecutors charged Artiles in March with felony campaign fraud charges, saying he secretly gave more than $44,000 to Rodriguez so that he could run in the 2020 election to confuse voters and siphon ballots from then-Democratic incumbent, Sen. Jose Javier Rodríguez. The funds allegedly came from a dark money source. Artiles has pleaded not guilty.

    Alex Rodríguez, a 55-year-old auto parts salesman with no political experience, ran as an independent in the three-way race in Miami-Dade County, pulling in 6,000 votes. The race was won by Republican Ileana García by just 32 votes. She is not implicated in the scheme.

    ... Candidate pleads guilty in alleged Florida vote scam - ABC News (go.com)

    Seems that once again, actual electoral fraud was perpetrated not by Democrats, but by Republicans. Funny how that works. And worse, this fraud most likely changed the outcome of that election.
     
    Joe knows, omni, cd8ed and 1 other person like this.
  2. MJ Davies

    MJ Davies Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2020
    Messages:
    21,120
    Likes Received:
    20,246
    Trophy Points:
    113
  3. gorfias

    gorfias Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2012
    Messages:
    5,336
    Likes Received:
    5,925
    Trophy Points:
    113
    I think Trump was right. Now we should really work towards election security.
     
  4. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

    Joined:
    May 25, 2012
    Messages:
    55,518
    Likes Received:
    27,044
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Trump is a lying narcissist. In both elections he gaslit the country into believing that *if* he lost the election (2016 & 2020), then it was "rigged" and he didn't really lose. As a narcissist, he is pathologically obsessed with his own image, with how others perceive him. He can't be seen as a loser, and this was, according to his niece, driven into him by his psycho father.
     
  5. FatBack

    FatBack Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2018
    Messages:
    52,317
    Likes Received:
    48,705
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    It was Miami, are you remotely surprised?
     
  6. MJ Davies

    MJ Davies Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2020
    Messages:
    21,120
    Likes Received:
    20,246
    Trophy Points:
    113
    No. He was not right. He did everything he could to make it "look" like there were some *unknown* reasons why he wouldn't be re-elected, but he planned his con so he would be able to always blame *somebody else* for his election loss.

    He got fired because he didn't do his job on taking leadership over the pandemic. And, he talked that up himself. He told an Axios reporter "I take no responsibility at all.".

    Think about that. Let's say every 1 person has at least 10-15 family and friends that love them.

    On Trump’s Last Full Day, Nation Records 400,000 Covid Deaths
    https://khn.org/news/nation-records-400000-covid-deaths-on-last-day-of-donald-trump-presidency/


    400,000 x 15 = 6,000,000.

    And that ONLY includes people impacted by the death of a loved one during the pandemic, not the ones that lost their jobs or had to close their businesses permanently or were simply turned off by his obvious non-concern for what people were facing and he wasn't able to effectively convey HOW he would work toward that during his campaigns and rallies. It was ALL about why people shouldn't elect Biden, not why they should re-elect him.
     
  7. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

    Joined:
    May 25, 2012
    Messages:
    55,518
    Likes Received:
    27,044
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I would only argue that he got fired for more reasons than that. He was abhorrent in his conduct and accomplished nothing beyond tearing up good and important international agreements, bitterly dividing the country, more than once abusing the powers of his office to his own ends, making a massive embarassment of the country around the world, and then, on top of it all, being such a narcissistic creep that he was fine with getting many more Americans killed by the pandemic than needed to be simply because he didn't want the reality of the pandemic and its impact on the precious economy making him look bad. He was fired for being a raging (in more ways than one) narcissist and, as Bernie Sanders rightly describes him, a pathological liar.
     
  8. MJ Davies

    MJ Davies Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2020
    Messages:
    21,120
    Likes Received:
    20,246
    Trophy Points:
    113
    D, we would break the bandwidth of this forum if we discussed all the things wrong with him.

    See here: http://www.politicalforum.com/index.php?threads/riding-any-wave-with-trump-why.591468/
     
  9. gorfias

    gorfias Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2012
    Messages:
    5,336
    Likes Received:
    5,925
    Trophy Points:
    113
    It doesn't mean, in this specific instance, that he was not right.
    We have a problem. Our elections are easily gamed. In this case, a Republican got caught. In others?
    People abuse power. You leave them an opening, it will get used.
    Right now, I think we have a ruling elite that would prefer systems they can rig to one that might allow the people to actually choose who they want to govern and how.
    I think it was Princeton that did a study that concluded that representative government in the US is dead. There is a gap between what people want, and what international corporations want. And the corporations are getting their way.
     
  10. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

    Joined:
    May 25, 2012
    Messages:
    55,518
    Likes Received:
    27,044
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    The fact that he's talking out of his ass and that his accusations are wild and demand a very high standard of evidence, and that repeated recounts by officials in several states have turned up NOTHING, and that he and his supporters have given the courts and the public NOTHING, mean that he is quite wrong in this specific instance.
     
  11. Matthewthf

    Matthewthf Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2016
    Messages:
    6,923
    Likes Received:
    4,269
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    So his crime was giving money to someone so they could run in a election?

    Not exactly voter fraud...
     
  12. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

    Joined:
    May 25, 2012
    Messages:
    55,518
    Likes Received:
    27,044
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Pretend a Democrat had done it and tell me what you really think ;)
     
    Sallyally and Hey Now like this.
  13. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 15, 2017
    Messages:
    34,640
    Likes Received:
    11,206
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Let's remember that prosecuting individuals who commit fraud shouldn't be the only measure in place to prevent fraudulent votes in election.

    Not only should fraud be punished, but we shouldn't make it easy to commit fraud in the first place.

    Why do Democrats seem to be trying to do everything possible to make it easy for an individual to commit fraud?
     
    Last edited: Aug 27, 2021
    Matthewthf likes this.
  14. Aleksander Ulyanov

    Aleksander Ulyanov Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2013
    Messages:
    41,184
    Likes Received:
    16,180
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    How are Democrats making it easy to commit fraud?
     
  15. Aleksander Ulyanov

    Aleksander Ulyanov Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2013
    Messages:
    41,184
    Likes Received:
    16,180
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    The best way to do that would be to simply not let any Republicans run

    It isn't going to happen but I can dream, can't I?
     
    Sallyally likes this.
  16. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

    Joined:
    May 15, 2017
    Messages:
    34,640
    Likes Received:
    11,206
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Isn't that a totally obvious question? They want to make it easier to vote - so easy that you don't even have to provide verification about who you are.
     
  17. HereWeGoAgain

    HereWeGoAgain Banned

    Joined:
    Nov 11, 2016
    Messages:
    27,942
    Likes Received:
    19,979
    Trophy Points:
    113
    No they aren't.
     
    Hey Now likes this.
  18. MJ Davies

    MJ Davies Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 4, 2020
    Messages:
    21,120
    Likes Received:
    20,246
    Trophy Points:
    113
    That's not the crime. He knowingly chose someone with a similar name so voters would be confused about which one was the candidate they wanted to vote for. Siphoning votes is election fraud.
     
  19. Injeun

    Injeun Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 13, 2012
    Messages:
    12,832
    Likes Received:
    5,961
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I'm a Republican and I'm glad they were caught. Does that disqualify Lleana Garcia's victory?
     
  20. DentalFloss

    DentalFloss Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2013
    Messages:
    11,445
    Likes Received:
    3,263
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Why would you want that? Do you like the following?

    - Super high, out of control taxes
    - Open borders
    - A "Constitution" that has no power
    - Defunded military and police, increased crime, terrorism, and world hotspots
    - A vastly increased welfare class, who live at the expense of others forced to pay for their laziness
    - A 2nd Amendment that says nothing at all
    - Even higher, more out of control taxes
    - A lack of respect or enforcement of intellectual property rights
    - The possibility of the complete loss of real property ownership

    I could go on. And I could have put the word "more" in front of everything on that list, because we're already in pretty poor shape on most of those in the first place. Witness what happens when you cut and run and leave behind an undefeated enemy in Afghanistan. Or spending multiple TRILLIONS of future taxpayer revenue without a thought in the world as to whether or not it's appropriate. Trillions. It wasn't long ago that ideas that even MIGHT cost trillions were simply off the table, and not even subject to being discussed because they weren't going to happen. Now, it's more a question of HOW MANY TRILLIONS we're going to spend on this or that, not whether we should do it at all. Pacifists who don't like the police or military even existing in the first place defunding or outright eliminating large swaths of them. Socialists and straight up communists "in charge" of the entire economy. People who think the outright theft of intellectual property is a GOOD thing, and would encourage more of it, while ignoring, or even repealing, things such as patents and copyrights. Taxes on real estate that routinely (and quite possibly, intentionally) force seniors out of homes they've owned for decades because the taxes now make the original mortgage look like change one might find in a couch.

    This is what you want? Do you have no respect for individuals, rights, or the history of just what and who the United States is supposed to be?
     
  21. Aleksander Ulyanov

    Aleksander Ulyanov Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2013
    Messages:
    41,184
    Likes Received:
    16,180
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    Do you really want:
    Super rich billionaires who pay less in taxes than their lower secretaries?
    Legitimate refugees who are truly fleeing for their lives being denied asylum for their helpless families?
    Our laws being held in thrall to standards and practices that were outmoded centuries ago?
    A Military that gobbles up all our money to fight wars that were over decades past while the ones we have now continue unchecked?
    An entire new class of wealth based entirely on corruption?
    The most heavily armed general populace that has ever existed, while innumerable innocents are slaughtered by madmen so frequently we view it as commonplace?
    Men so rich they rival the grandees of old who outright owned whole Empires while many of the people who bravely defend us in our military must beg for charity just to eat?
    This is what you want? A racist plutocracy which ignores and even openly mocks the principles we supposedly have actually enshrined in the very documents that are the basis of our national existence?

    I don't think you do, not really, but many of us are letting con men use our own better natures to fool us into doing untold evil and we had better stop enabling such perfidy while we still can
     
    Sallyally likes this.
  22. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

    Joined:
    May 25, 2012
    Messages:
    55,518
    Likes Received:
    27,044
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    I don't know. Why do you have such a flawed idea of what Democrats are doing? I can only guess you choose to believe it due to personal bias.
     
  23. Sallyally

    Sallyally Well-Known Member Donor

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2017
    Messages:
    15,834
    Likes Received:
    28,238
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Female
    Hear hear
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2021
  24. Sallyally

    Sallyally Well-Known Member Donor

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2017
    Messages:
    15,834
    Likes Received:
    28,238
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Female
    .
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2021
  25. Aleksander Ulyanov

    Aleksander Ulyanov Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 9, 2013
    Messages:
    41,184
    Likes Received:
    16,180
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Gender:
    Male
    It should be easy to vote. So easy that I believe it should be compulsory. How can we maintain ourselves an actual Republic of the masses when substantial numbers of our populace are permitted to not participate?

    Our two-tier system of registration and voting has the purpose of ensuring the security of our elections and that is where reform should be directed if you want to accomplish that ostensible purpose and not just repress certain demographics from voting at all.
     

Share This Page