Every state attorney in Florida should do what Miami-Dade’s Fernandez Rundle did | Editorial
Special agents with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General discovered 48 mail-in ballots — unattended and undelivered — in a South Miami-Dade post office. A chilling discovery. Now, every state attorney in Florida should follow Katherine Fernández Rundle’s lead and demand that postal inspectors step in across the state to ensure that all mail-in ballots reach an elections department.
In a race this close in this purple state that’s so important in deciding who will be president, our democracy cannot afford to leave votes cast in a timely manner in the bins and dark corners of our post offices. Be they in a liberal cities or conservative towns, every eligible vote must be counted.
We commend Miami-Dade State Attorney Fernández Rundle for taking the initiative and stepping in to ensure the county’s voting process is not tainted, as is her duty.
Undelivered ballots
Friday night, after the Miami Herald reported that there was a tip on Twitter of a backlog of mail at the Princeton post office near Homestead, Fernández Rundle issued a public mandate demanded that U.S. postal agents search every mail distribution center in Miami-Dade for undelivered ballots. Any found, she said, should be “immediately transported to the Department of Elections.”
Our question today is: “Are mail backlogs like this one happening across the state?
We urge other states attorney across Florida to demand inspections for ballots at their county’s mail facilities before Tuesday.
Fernández Rundle raised the alarm, giving credit to a tipster. Every voter should be grateful that she said, “Not here” to this form of voter suppression, be it intentional or inadvertent and that she reacted so swiftly to get to the bottom of the problem. The feds, including the U.S attorney in Miami, have now stepped in. A joint federal and state investigation is under way.
News of the undelivered ballots spread on social media after Democratic State Rep. Kionne L. McGhee, a candidate for the County Commission in the district where the mail facility is located, posted a video of the stacked-up mail bins .
USPS special agents said that, of the 48 mail-in ballots found at the Princeton facility, 42 had never been delivered to voters who asked for them. Six were completed and signed, but sat there. Fernández Rundle didn’t just wait for evidence of a crime to emerge; she stepped in to prevent it.
Fernández Rundle said she wants “to make sure that all ballots are accounted for and all votes are counted.”
No replay of 2000
The unsettling discovered spurred by recollections of what happened in 2000 — the year our innocence about the casting and sanctity of our votes was shattered with shenanigans in Miami-Dade and in Florida..
Nipping this in the bud now, with time to fix the problem before Tuesday is the most responsible move by the move by the feds and Fernández Rundle, who was reelected in August after 27 years in office.
Fernández Rundle sent a message on behalf of all Miami-Dade voters: Messing with our votes in any fashion will not be tolerated in 2020. Her peers around the state should send the same message to their own constituents.
This story was originally published October 31, 2020 at 3:21 PM.