Yesterday we published our R2K poll pegging this race as a dead heat, with Lincoln Diaz-Balart leading Democratic challenger Raul Martinez 45-44. Even more telling was the early voting numbers -- 55-42 -- showing that the early ground game was heavily favoring the Democrat.
So, being one of the highest-profile members of the corrupt South Florida Republican hardline Cuban-American community, Diaz-Balart decided to steal the election.
Three Hialeah voters say they had an unusual visitor at their homes last week: a man who called himself Juan, offering to help them fill out their absentee ballots and deliver them to the elections office.
The voters, all supporters of Democratic congressional candidate Raul Martinez, said they gave their ballots to the man after he told them he worked for Martinez. But the Martinez campaign said he doesn't work for them.
Juan ''told me not to worry, that they normally collected all the ballots and waited until they had a stack big enough to hand-deliver to the elections department,'' said voter Jesus Hernandez, 73. 'He said, `Don't worry. This is not going to pass through the mail to get lost.'''
Hernandez said he worries his ballot was stolen or destroyed. He and two other voters told The Miami Herald that the man was dispatched by a woman caller who also said she worked for Martinez. But the phone number cited by the voters traces back to a consultant working for Martinez's rival, Republican congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart.
Martinez's campaign manager, Jeff Garcia, has asked the Miami-Dade state attorney's office to investigate.
This is the kind of crap that has kept the GOP Cuban hardliners in power for so long, and what we're up against as we try to wrestle away these three House seats (including FL-18 with Annette Taddeo and FL-25 with Joe Garcia) from this corrupt machine.
The Martinez campaign has additional evidence of this fraud they intend to present at a 2 p.m. ET press conference this afternoon.
On the web:
Raul Martinez for Congress