Jose Garcia
Jose Garcia's JournalFederal prosecutors reviewing altered election documents tied to Florida Democrats
Source: Politico
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Department of State last week asked federal prosecutors to investigate dates that were changed on official state election documents, the first voting “irregularities” it has flagged in the wake of the 2018 elections.
The concerns, which the department says can be tied to the Florida Democratic Party, center around date changes on forms used to fix vote-by-mail ballots sent with incorrect or missing information. Known as “cure affidavits,” those documents used to fix mail ballots were due no later than 5 p.m. on Nov. 5 — the day before the election. But affidavits released on Tuesday by the DOS show that documents from four different counties said the ballots could be returned by 5 p.m. on Thursday, which is not accurate.
Among those counties is Broward, which emerged as the epicenter of controversy as three statewide races and three local legislative races went into recounts following the Nov. 6 elections. Republicans have pointed to embattled Broward Elections chief Brenda Snipes' record of past election gaffes in arguing that the largely Democratic country is tilted against them — perhaps fraudulently so.
DOS officials have repeatedly told the media that the monitors they sent to Broward County saw no election fraud. It wasn't until Tuesday that the office revealed publicly that it had turned over information to federal prosecutors.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2018/11/13/federal-prosecutors-reviewing-altered-election-documents-tied-to-florida-democrats-695299
Whoops! Brenda Snipes' office mixed bad provisional ballots with good ones
Source: The Miami Herald
Broward’s elections supervisor accidentally mixed more than a dozen rejected ballots with nearly 200 valid ones, a circumstance that is unlikely to help Brenda Snipes push back against Republican allegations of incompetence.
The mistake — for which no one had a solution Friday night — was discovered after Snipes agreed to present 205 provisional ballots to the Broward County canvassing board for inspection. She had initially intended to handle the ballots administratively, but agreed to present them to the canvassing board after Republican attorneys objected.
“We have found no clear authority controlling the situation faced by the board,” said Broward County Attorney Andrew Meyers.
On Election Day, Broward County collected more than 600 provisional ballots. The vast majority were declared invalid by the county’s canvassing board judges for reasons ranging from registering to vote too late to previously voting to voting at the wrong precinct.
Read more: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article221452655.html
A 69-year-old man asks to be declared 49, claiming age is as fluid as gender
Source: The Washington Post
In the quixotic battle against old age, some people use skin care and spin class.
That’s not enough for Emile Ratelband, a 69-year-old who feels like he’s in his 40s. The Dutch pensioner is asking a court in his hometown of Arnhem, southeast of Amsterdam, to change his birth certificate so that it says he took his first breath on March 11, 1969, rather than on March 11, 1949. The judges heard his case on Monday and promised they would render a verdict in the next several weeks.
Ratelband sees his request as no different from a petition to change his name or the gender he was assigned at birth — and isn’t bothered that this comparison might offend transgender people, whose medical needs have been recognized by the American Medical Association. It comes down to free will, he maintains.
“Because nowadays, in Europe and in the United States, we are free people,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post. “We can make our own decisions if we want to change our name, or if we want to change our gender. So I want to change my age. My feeling about my body and about my mind is that I’m about 40 or 45.”
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/nation/2018/11/08/year-old-man-asks-be-declared-claiming-age-is-fluid-gender/?__twitter_impression=true&noredirect=on
Voter support for Wasserman Schultz foe Tim Canova plummets
U. S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, was easily elected to an eighth term in the 2018 midterm elections, receiving 58.4 percent of the vote.
That’s a higher percentage of the vote than she received two years ago.
Joe Kaufman, the perennial Republican candidate, received 36 percent of the vote on Tuesday.
Tim Canova received just 4.9 percent of the vote in his second attempt to oust Wasserman Schultz. That works out to less than one vote for every 11 people who voted for the incumbent.
more: https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-wasserman-schultz-tim-canova-results-20181107-story,amp.html?__twitter_impression=true
'I was angry and I sent it': Fourth Kavanaugh accuser referred to FBI after recanting
Source: USA Today
WASHINGTON - Just days before the midterm elections, Sen. Chuck Grassley asked the federal authorities on Friday to investigate another person he says made false claims against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Grassley, in a letter to the Justice Department and FBI, said a woman by the name of Judy Munro-Leighton took responsibility for authoring an anonymous letter that made allegations that Kavanaugh and a friend raped her. After she was tracked down and interviewed by Senate investigators, the woman recanted and said she was not the author and had never met Kavanaugh.
Grassley claims the woman is a left-wing activist and told investigators it was "just a ploy," he wrote in the letter. Her full comments to investigators were not made available and efforts by USA TODAY to reach Munro-Leighton were unsuccessful.
The letter marks the fourth request Grassley has made of federal authorities to investigate those involved in the controversial Kavanaugh proceedings, which were extended due to a series of sexual assault allegations surfacing when Kavanaugh was in high school and college.
Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/1863210002
Joe Donnelly says he has minority staffers, 'but' they've done well
Source: CNN
Washington (CNN) Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly from Indiana awkwardly touted minority staff members during a debate Tuesday night, seeming to suggest they succeeded despite their race or ethnicity.
"Our state director is Indian-American, but he does an amazing job," he said. "Our director of all constituent services, she's African-American, but she does an even more incredible job than you can ever imagine."
Donnelly is one of the Senate's most endangered incumbents. He is facing Republican challenger Mike Braun in next week's midterm election.
His comment Tuesday night came in the context of a question about diversity.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/31/politics/joe-donnelly-but-awkward-moment-diversity/index.html
Michael Avenatti to Time: 2020 Democratic nominee 'better be a white male'
Source: CNN
Washington (CNN) — Michael Avenatti said the Democratic Party's choice to take on President Donald Trump in 2020 should be a white man, according to an interview with Time magazine published Thursday.
"I think it better be a white male," Avenatti, a 2020 potential candidate himself, said.
Avenatti said in the piece that he wished it was not the case that white men, as he and Trump are, are listened to more than people of other races and genders, but that he believed his identity was part of why he had been able to defend adult film star Stormy Daniels and immigrant mothers.
"When you have a white male making the arguments, they carry more weight," Avenatti said. "Should they carry more weight? Absolutely not. But do they? Yes."
Read more: https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/10/25/politics/michael-avenatti-time/index.html?utm_source=fbCNN&utm_medium=social&utm_content=2018-10-25T18%3A29%3A06&utm_term=link&r=https%3A%2F%2Fm.facebook.com%2F
Steve Bannon tickets now going for zero dollars
Source: Tampa Bay Times
The Hillsborough County Republican Party's dinner with former Trump political adviser Steve Bannon is now free.
Party vice chairman Jeff Lukens sent an email to members of the local party Monday saying, "The Trump Anniversary Dinner with Steve Bannon this Friday will be COMPLEMENTARY TO ALL. We have a donor who will cover our expenses."
The party had previously advertised the dinner, to be held Friday night, as a fundraiser with prices up to $20,000 for 10 seats of premier seating at a table with Bannon, VIP tickets at $1,000 each, and general admission at $125.
Last week it cut the prices to $5,000 for the 10 "chairman's table" seats with Bannon, $300 for VIP seats, and general admission at $50. Announcing the price cuts, the party said in a Facebook posting, "We want to pack the house!!!"
Read more: The Hillsborough County Republican Party's dinner with former Trump political adviser Steve Bannon is now free. Party vice chairman Jeff Lukens sent an email to members of the local party Monday saying, "The Trump Anniversary Dinner with Steve Bannon this Friday will be COMPLEMENTARY TO ALL. We have a donor who will cover our expenses." The party had previously advertised the dinner, to be held Friday night, as a fundraiser with prices up to $20,000 for 10 seats of premier seating at a table with Bannon, VIP tickets at $1,000 each, and general admission at $125. Last week it cut the prices to $5,000 for the 10 "chairman's table" seats with Bannon, $300 for VIP seats, and general admission at $50. Announcing the price cuts, the party said in a Facebook posting, "We want to pack the house!!!"
Pizza deliveryman at the center of ICE deportation case arrested in domestic violence case
Source: CBS News
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — An Ecuadorian pizza deliveryman who was held up as an example of zealous U.S. immigration enforcement has been arrested in a domestic violence case. A criminal complaint alleges that Pablo Villavicencio pushed his wife against a wall, slapped her and grabbed her phone to keep her from calling police last Thursday at the couple's Hempstead, Long Island home.
He was arraigned Saturday on a misdemeanor charge and remained jailed Monday afternoon.
Villavicencio's lawyer, Bruce Barket, said the case against him is weak and that factual allegations didn't match the crime charged.
"The criminal case is the kind of thing that really wouldn't make it two weeks in criminal court if it weren't for the attention," Barket said. "Let's see what happens."
Read more: Link to source
Cherokee Nation: Warren's use of DNA test 'inappropriate,' 'wrong'
Source: The Hill
The Cherokee Nation on Monday afternoon called out Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for attempting to claim Native American heritage by releasing the results of a DNA test.
The test, conducted by a Stanford University professor Carlos Bustamante, showed that Warren has a Native American ancestor going back six to 10 generations ago, making her somewhere between 1/32nd and 1/1,024th American Indian.
The Cherokee Nation in a statement said using a DNA test to claim connection with a tribal nation is "inappropriate" and "wrong."
"Using a DNA test to lay claim to any connection to the Cherokee Nation or any tribal nation, even vaguely, is inappropriate and wrong," said Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr. "It makes a mockery out of DNA tests and its legitimate uses while also dishonoring legitimate tribal governments and their citizens, whose ancestors are well documented and whose heritage is proven."
Read more: https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/homenews/senate/411521-cherokee-nation-warrens-use-of-dna-test-inappropriate-wrong%3famp
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