Fraud concerns swirl around Florida's unregulated absentee ballot brokers ahead of election

Recent allegations of absentee ballot fraud in Florida have shined a light on the shadowy work of so-called "boleteros" – absentee ballot brokers who, in some cases, have been accused of cajoling, bribing and even forging the names of unsuspecting voters. 

The most recent claim involves Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who hired an alleged "boletero" for his 2010 campaign. In Scott's case, the campaign claims it did nothing wrong and indeed nobody has been charged. But the claim follows the arrest of a boletero in a separate case, and coincides with a wave of coverage and attention in the Miami-Dade, Fla., area surrounding what for authorities is an illicit practice. 

Boleteros -- translated roughly to mean ticket-person -- assist in collecting absentee ballots and helping primarily elderly and disabled voters in filling them out. This can be entirely lawful, but sometimes these workers walk a fine legal line. 

For many boleteros, it can be a profitable enterprise – with some guaranteeing votes in exchange for money, authorities say. They are particularly prominent in heavily Republican Spanish-speaking communities, like Hialeah. 

Under Florida law, it is legal to assist voters in ensuring their absentee ballots are properly mailed. But it’s illegal to influence voters, request ballots on behalf of someone else and forge signatures. The state no longer requires witness signatures on absentee ballots, officials note, and many of the boleteros will illegally “follow the ballots all through the process.”

“This is a dirty business and unfortunately it’s become pretty common.”

- Joe Centerino, director of Miami-Dade's Ethics Commission

“They’ll visit the voters, help them vote, and suggest who to vote for,” Joseph Centorino, director of Miami-Dade's Ethics Commission, told FoxNews.com. “Some of them even have had the ballots delivered to them and not to the voter.”

The practice amounts to an unregulated election-related business. The boleteros do not need to register with the state, though there is a proposal in Miami-Dade County that would require campaigns to disclose who they are hiring to handle absentee ballots. Absentee ballot voters, Centorino noted, are required to sign a written authorization if they wish to have someone else pick up their ballot and deliver it. 

“This is a dirty business and unfortunately it’s become pretty common,” said Centorino, who worked for many years as head of the corruption unit of the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office.

“Some of them have been known to sell their services to the highest bidder,” he said.

Earlier this month, Miami-Dade police charged 56-year-old Deisy Penton de Cabrera with absentee ballot fraud, a third-degree felony, after she allegedly forged the name of an elderly woman at a nursing home. Authorities also claim Cabrera was found carrying at least 31 absentee ballots for a local election – a violation of a county ordinance that prohibits individuals from possessing more than two absentee ballots at a time.

Scott's campaign came under scrutiny after campaign records showed he paid a $5,000 contract fee to Hialeah resident Emelina Llanes, an accused boletera, according to press reports. Two former law enforcement officials, including former Hialeah Police Chief Rolando Bolaños, reportedly identified Llanes as a boletera to local media outlets – though the 74-year-old woman has not been charged and she denies any wrongdoing.

In an interview with FoxNews.com, Scott’s former campaign manager, Susie Wiles, said, “We like all other campaigns that I’m aware of hired independent contractors to do get-out-the-vote activities. This may have included work with absentee voters, which is legal and customary.”

While boleteros are known to step over the legal line, it is difficult to detect and prove, according to authorities. 

“Absentee ballot fraud has been substantiated on a rather significant basis as contrasted with voter impersonation fraud,” said Robert Pastor, an American University professor and director of the school's Center for Democracy and Election Management.

“Absentee ballot voting is by definition open to possible fraud in that the individual who gets the ballot could be subject to either intimidation or manipulation in some fashion,” Pastor said. “This is not very easy to determine.”

J. Christian Adams, a former Department of Justice official, recalled how he litigated a 2005 absentee ballot fraud case in federal court in Mississippi. A judge ruled that Mississippi's former Noxubee County Democratic Party leader, Ike Brown, in collaboration with the Noxubee Democratic Executive Committee "manipulated the political process in ways specifically intended and designed to impair and impede participation of white voters and to dilute their votes."

“It’s sophisticated people preying on the unsophisticated,” Adams said of the “boleteros” problem. “It’s persuasive people preying on the indifferent.”

“That victim doesn’t really care as much about voting as the notary – or perpetrator … They don’t even realize that they’ve been stripped of their right to vote by a criminal.”

Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California Irvine, said lawmakers looking to crack down on such voter fraud should be "cutting back on absentee balloting" rather than implementing tough voter ID laws -- as states like Florida are doing. 

But seasoned political strategists, like long-time Republican consultant Roger Stone, say the practice has only been problematic in local races.

“I really believe that absentee ballot fraud is somewhat limited to local and county offices,” said Stone, adding that he wasn’t aware of any substantial absentee ballot fraud cases at the state or congressional level.

“Most of this has centered around Hialeah. It’s a political culture that comes from the Latin world. It’s very prevalent in South America and Cuba," he said. 

“If Florida really is within 1 point between Obama and Romney, and there is absentee voter fraud in this election, it could have an effect,” he continued. “But the FBI is all over Miami-Dade like a cheap suit.”

“I really think the publicity has probably put an end to the practice for the near future,” he said.

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Voter watchdog says it's uncovered absentee ballot fraud in Florida, New York

A national voter fraud watchdog group announced Tuesday that it has uncovered at least 31 cases of absentee ballot fraud in New York and Florida -- a finding the group claims is "just the tip of the iceberg."

True the Vote, a group that focuses on voter fraud, said it turned over 31 cases to state and federal election authorities in which individuals cast their votes in two states in the same federal election -- which is a felony.

Logan Churchwell, a spokesman for the group, told FoxNews.com that the organization accessed Florida's complete voter registration roll and cross-referenced it against 10 percent of New York's list. It identified more than 1,700 people with voter registrations in both states. Of that number, 31 people allegedly voted in both states during the same federal election cycle.

Both Florida and New York require voters to cast ballots that correspond with their permanent home addresses. Under federal law, voters are prohibited from casting more than one ballot in the same election.

"This is further evidence of just how susceptible our election system is to voter fraud," the group's president, Catherine Engelbrecht, said in a statement.

The group said it has alerted the Office of Florida Secretary of State, the New York State Board of Elections and the U.S. Department of Justice of its finding.

"This should serve as a warning to any individual considering committing voter fraud in this year’s election," Engelbrecht said. "These findings are only the beginning of our effort. As today is National Voter Registration Day, it's important to remember that no candidate or cause is worth a felony conviction."

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Family wants answers on missing 3-year-old West Virginia girl

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. –  Her mother is in prison for welfare fraud. Her stepfather is lying low. Her six siblings, some just infants, are in the custody of child welfare authorities. And Aliayah Lunsford, the brown-eyed 3-year-old who vanished from her West Virginia home a year ago Monday, is still missing.

"It just seems like everybody's forgotten her," said Aliayah's great-aunt Vickie Bowen, "but we're never going to forget."

In the year since Aliayah disappeared from her family's rented house in the Bendale section of Lewis County, Bowen has concluded the girl is probably dead, though she avoids using the word.

"But we still need to know. We need that closure," Bowen said. "We need to take care of her."

Aliayah's mother, Lena Lunsford, told police her daughter was in bed, wearing purple pajama pants and a pink sweat shirt, at 6:30 a.m. Sept. 24, 2011. But she said the child was missing when she checked on her a few hours later.

Six months later, an FBI official said investigators had a working theory about what happened — and it didn't involve a break-in. The agency has since refused to say what agents believe happened to Aliayah or whether they think she's still alive, though it is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to her recovery or an arrest.

Authorities have made no arrests and named no suspects, only describing the people of interest as "a small universe."

Lewis County Sheriff's Deputy Lt. David Parks declined to discuss details of the investigation this week and referred questions to the FBI, which didn't return several messages. However, local authorities have put information about Aliayah in a brochure for people attending a hunting and fishing expo this weekend.

"It's something that stays in our minds all the time here," Parks said. "It's not something you can forget: There's a little girl missing."

Parks said the case is still active and tips are still coming in, though relatives complain they've had no updates in months.

"If there were more to do, we'd be doing it," he said. "Unfortunately, right now we're doing what we can with what we have."

Aliayah Lunsford's case has gotten little attention beyond the boundaries of her small home state, failing to resonate with the public in the way that Caylee Anthony's story did even though both girls were toddlers with chubby cheeks and brown hair.

The body of the 2-year-old Florida girl was found a month after she was reported missing in 2008. Anthony's mother, Casey, was charged with murder after telling a string of lies to police but was later acquitted.

However, Aliayah's case is different in several ways: Neither the immediate family nor the police sought national media attention. Investigators have been tight-lipped about the case, the family and their working theories from the start.

Aliayah's parents were also poor, and their family relationships were splintered before the girl vanished, so there has been no prominent spokesman.

And Aliayah has never been found, dead or alive.

The girl's mother was indicted weeks after Aliayah's disappearance on charges she illegally swapped welfare benefits for cash five times in two months. She was sentenced in May to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to selling $114 worth of credit on her food-stamp card for $50 cash and reported to prison in late June.

Attorney Mike Woelfel, who has represented Lena Lunsford in unrelated civil matters, has said Lena doesn't believe her daughter wandered off and has cooperated with investigators. She's also certain "no blood relative of Aliayah knows what has happened to her," though Woelfel has never elaborated.

Woelfel said he spoke to Lena Lunsford on Friday, and she told him she still believes "Aliayah is out there, alive."

"She's told the FBI everything she knows," he said, "so she's basically powerless to do anything other than sit and wait."

Lena Lunsford filed for divorce from her husband, Ralph Keith Lunsford, after her daughter's disappearance, and is still waiting for it to be finalized. She'd been ordered by a judge to live apart from Ralph after he acknowledged buying and using synthetic drugs called bath salts.

Both parents have repeatedly refused to comment on Aliayah's disappearance, but in a court proceeding, Ralph Lunsford acknowledged police had considered him a person of interest and repeatedly questioned him in the case.

Lena Lunsford gave birth to twins after Aliayah disappeared and before she went to prison. Bowen, their great-aunt, has never met them. Nor does she know where the other children are.

"Until we find answers for Aliayah," she said, "there's no chance of seeing them."

After a year with no solid leads, Bowen is frustrated — but she and a group of about 10 people still search regularly for Aliayah.

"If we hear anything, anything at all, we're there. No matter how unbelievable it seems to us, we go check it out," she said.

On Monday, Bowen and others will plant flowers near the welcome sign in Weston to honor Aliayah. They'll distribute flyers with her picture and post them at area businesses. They're even planning a small afternoon demonstration at the Lewis County Courthouse.

"We're not giving up," Bowen said. "There's no way we're going to give up. A child does not simply disappear."

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