What? Voting Fraud in Florida?

Not since the debacle that was the 2000 presidential election (watch the film, Unprecedented, for details), have Floridians seen such cajones on the part of a certain group interested in a certain result in an certain election (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

This time it’s the Greyhound racing industry that pulled one over on us. I know, I know, it’s hard to believe that an industry with a peerless reputation for integrity and compassion could actually commit fraud. But alas, this isn’t just a baseless accusation by a bunch of wacky dog lovers.

Here’s the sequence of events:

• Way back before the local 2004 elections, the industry was in steep decline and had to do something about it. Often, tracks add slot machines for gambling, to boost the total revenue of the facility, thereby propping up the industry.
• In order to get an Amendment (in this case, Amendment 4 in Miami-Dade and Broward counties) on the ballot for election, the group in favor of the Amendment must submit a petition with enough signatures. And they did. And in a controversial election that was very close, they won.
• There were all kinds of rumors floating around at the time that some of the signatures were fraudulent. That’s not so unusual when it comes to hot-button issues, and I for one took it all with a grain of salt.
• But wait–it turns out many of the signatures really were fraudulent. In fact, Grey2K USA and the Humane Society of the United States proved that the petition was chock full of signatures of people who had died. There were also fraudulent names and addresses. It seemed likely that the original results would be overturned.

Victory is ours, right?
Not so fast. 

• When this case was initially heard at the beginning of 2005, Circuit Judge Nikki Ann Clark ruled against Grey2K USA and the HSUS, stating "the courts can overturn the results of an election only when there is evidence of fraud in the election itself, not in events leading up to the election, like petition drives."

Is that real, you ask? Welcome to Florida.

But wait, there’s more:

• An appeals court has ordered a trial. Their statement read: "There is no room in the process for fraud that places an amendment on the ballot."

That’s more like it.

Stay tuned . . .