On Wednesday, Llanes refused to explain what her role was in that campaign.

“Anybody can give me 5,000 bucks”, she said. “Nobody should care who gives that to me.”

Then she denied ever receiving the payment.

“I don’t know anything about those 5,000 bucks,” she said. “That’s so much money.”

Susie Wiles, who ran Scott’s campaign, assured that Llanes was hired to do “get out the vote” activities, as were many independent contractors across the state. Last year, Llanes was active in Hialeah mayor Carlos Hernandez campaign, although she doesn’t appear in any of his financial reports.

But when Llanes’ vehicle broke down during that race, Hernandez sold her his 2001 Nissan Xterra for $4,000. Hernández declined to comment.

Llanes said she had to borrow money to buy the vehicle.

In the days prior to Hialeah’s municipal elections last year, Llanes gained notoriety after a bizarre episode in which she was followed by a cameraman that had been hired by the city’s former police chief, Rolando Bolaños, and then-detective, Ricardo García.

According to Bolaños and García, both political enemies of Hernandez, Llanes was collecting absentee ballots on his behalf at a Hialeah housing complex for low-income seniors. They’ve never shown evidence that this was the case.

When Llanes realized she was being filmed, she began to scream bloody murder and ran around the complex in apparent despair. Later, she said she thought the camera was a gun.

When Hialeah police arrived, they found no ballots. Llanes has said she’d was visiting the building to drop off a bag of steaks.

Bolaños said that, in those days, they were following two individuals they suspected of being ballot brokers: Llanes and Sergio “el Tío” Robaina.

Last month, authorities arrested Robaina on felony charges of tampering with ballots prior to the Aug. 14 elections. Robaina is the uncle of former mayor Julio Robaina, who in 2011 paid Llanes $200 for help on his own campaign for county mayor.

In recent years, Llanes has also worked on a few campaigns for Esteban Bovo, both for the state Legislature and County Commission. Records indicate she’s also been paid to work on the campaigns for state Legislature of Alex Morales, Eddy González and René García between 2000 and 2012.

Sources with knowledge of the expanding criminal investigation into ballot fraud in Hialeah have said that Llanes is one of many people on a list of possible ballot brokers, although she isn’t the target of the investigation.

Llanes said she just wants the questioning of her political activities to stop. She said her health has suffered as a result.

“I’m not a boletera,” she said. “I don’t collect ballots, I just help senior citizens. I do it to pass the time.”

This story has been updated from the print version that appeared in Saturday's' Metro & Local section.