Response from M-D County Clerk Harvey Ruvin

From the Man:

“I have been forwarded your e-mail (below), containing the link to your blog and seeking my response.  I have just read the seven part series presented there re: the Alvarez’ Recall and have several comments.
First, I do recall our brief telephone conversation a number of weeks ago.  If my memory serves me, you said you were a reporter for the [deleted] and that you had personally witnessed irregularities in the petition gathering process.

I explained that the role of the Clerk’s office in canvassing recall petitions was essentially neutral and ministerial.  I further said that if you have credible evidence of wrong doing -you should present it to the appropriate official, Miami-Dade County’s State Attorney.  After reading the contents of your blog, I certainly repeat my previous comments to you.

Second, from the beginning, we have assured all parties that the security and easy accessibility to the petitions as Public Records, are and continue to be the driving factors guiding the engineering of the petition verification process. The process limits the exposure of the petitions to loss or damage and preserves them for any future inquiries.

The 114 boxes of petitions, containing 114,334 petitions in 1758 batches are stored sequentially to enable quick retrieval of any individual petition for examination for any valid purpose. In addition, logs are being maintained that key all acceptance or rejection decisions to box and batch numbers for direct access to any individual petition form.

While there is no prescribed time for the full canvassing process, we are now confident that we will be able to complete and certify the results of the canvass by no later than mid-January 2011.  Perhaps sooner.

At that time, having systematically reviewed each of the 114,443 petition forms “on their face” as submitted for compliance with Miami-Dade Code, Section 12-23; we will then issue our statistical tabulation and certify the results of the canvass TO THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.

Other than our custodial responsibilities in managing the continuing public record in a professional and neutral manner, our role concludes with our submission to the Board.

Alvarez Recall–Part VII–Denoument

This is a picture of a the man who will ultimately decide whether the petitions that I have been writing about will be approved–Miami-Dade County Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin.

From both the Clerk’s website and the Miami Herald, Ruvin himself wrote that on Nov. 5, “Mr. Braman submitted 113 boxes with approximately 113,000 separate legal-size petition forms, each with the signature of only one petitioner, the signature of the circulator and the signature and stamp of the notary. Each box contains about 1,000 forms, 10 batches in a box. Once submitted, all of them became public record!”

Ruvin says that his people will make sure all petitions are in “full compliance” with Miami-Dade County ordinance 12-23. Let’s just go line by line in Section 2 of that ordinance and I’ll tell you the truth of how it really went down. READ MORE

Alvarez Recall–Part VI

Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

I once had a fraternity brother in college who liked to joke, “C’mon, Dane, it’s only illegal in the United States.” He was right, except at this point I am not in the United States–I’m in Miami. Things are different.

This picture to the left is on the last day of petitions coming into the office. Any other day one would have to weave their way to their “area.” And if you think we had desks or the proper room, then think again.

See this picture to the left. It’s two empty cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other. That was my “desk.” That writing on the desk is a series of my petition tallies. Real high tech, huh? Yeah, I could have brought my laptop in and sometimes I did, but what would it matter? We didn’t have wireless anyway.

It was a budget job from the start. No fridge. No microwave. Minimal AC. And if you could actually see the whole picture of my desk then you would also see the outlet to the left of that chair, which is right beside that stack of petitions you see on the floor in the first picture.

For all of Norman Braman’s money he really was an absentee plantation owner. READ MORE

Alvarez Recall–Part V

In “…And Justice For All”, Al Pacino’s character says (and this is actually a popular misquote): “I’m out of order? You’re out of order! This whole court’s out of order!”

Now, back to the story. I could have submitted this series to a local publication that was interested, but I didn’t think they would allow me to tell it my way so I balked. Not at first mind you. I tried to be a good boy. I tried to write it “the correct way”. But I was born without that bone in my body that makes me act right.

So what happened at those offices at 163rd Street in North Miami that has my  ire up? READ MORE

Alvarez Recall Part IV

If you read Part III of this series then you probably came away with one thing–

Give me the money and I’ll get you the signatures.

In Rhodes’ own blog, he wrote last February:

“Public employee unions, [...], have successfully banned pay-per-signature in some states in order to triple the cost of qualifying initiatives and block access to the process by their less funded opponents. Most career activists are motivated by incentive (pay for performance), not threat (hourly pay with quota).”

In a round about way, he is saying that “petition gathering” is about one thing: $$.

READ MORE

Alvarez Recall Part III

In the beginning, I was contracted by Michael Rhodes—Petition the People, Inc.—to do pure data entry. His operation seemed as legitimate as anything could be. They were “validating” the petitions to recall Alvarez. That means they were cross referencing the names on the petitions with Miami-Dade County records. In a quiet house off of Sans Souci Boulevard in Miami, I did this for two days.

Why didn’t they have a real office you ask? READ MORE

The Truth About Alvarez–Part II

The “political consultant” hired by Norman Braman was Tim Mooney, a partner at Silver Bullet, LLC, based out of Phoenix, Ariz. He was the orchestrator of all “field operations.” BallotFraud.org has cited Mooney as a right wing lobbyist bent on the destruction of free speech in efforts like Save Our Secret Ballot, which seeks to stifle unionization,  as well as that “his partner … Chuck Warren [has been] interviewed by the FBI about his role in the alleged illegal wiretapping of a Provo, Utah Councilwoman.” Mooney’s LinkedIN profile describes him as an, “independent political consultant with extensive experience […] lobbying strategies [and] creative use of paid and earned media…” READ MORE