DEAN VOTED!
Supervisor of Elections, Joyce Griffin, confirms that FKAA Board Chairman Bob Dean voted in the City election during the early voting period that ended Saturday.
Dean was given a “provisional ballot” in light of the “Voter Challenge” filed by State Attorney Catherine Vogel last month.
This means that his vote will not be counted unless the City of Key West Canvassing Board decides to accept Dean’s proof of residency in Key West.
A State Attorney investigation concluded last month that Mr. Dean resided in Key Haven and not in Key West and that he therefore should not be allowed to vote in City elections.
Vogel decided, at the time, not to prosecute Dean for voter fraud, a third degree felony, giving him the benefit of the doubt as to his possible criminal intent because, she concluded, Chairman Dean might have, in the past, relied on bad advice from former Supervisor of Elections, Harry Sawyer.
Now that Dean has voted again after being fully warned, before this election, the question remains as to whether the State Attorney is going to press criminal charges. At press time an email query sent to the State Attorney had not yet been answered.
Under Florida Statute, to remain in control of the FKAA board, Mr. Dean must be a Key West resident. In a criminal case, a jury would have to decide whether Dean committed voter fraud, with full knowledge, in an effort to keep his powerful position on the FKAA board. Voter fraud is punishable by up to 5 years in prison.
Dean’s attorney, Michael Halpern, wants the issue to be decided by the Key West Canvassing Board, not in a criminal proceeding. The Canvassing Board is comprised of two City Commissioners, Jimmy Weekly and Clayton Lopez, and the City Clerk, Cheri Smith.
Dean is also a prominent figure on the Key West Housing Authority Board of Directors. Since the Housing Authority rules over the lives of a considerable number of Commissioner Clayton Lopez’ constituents in Bahama Village, we asked Commissioner Lopez, last week, if he would be concerned about getting on Mr. Dean’s “bad side.” At press time we had not yet received a response.
The Canvassing Board is expected to hear the State Attorney’s challenge to Bob Dean’s right to vote on Friday morning at the office of the Supervisor of Elections, 530 Whitehead Street, #101. The meeting is open to the public.
Stay tuned…
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I hope that the voters all see the type of man he really is. By voting he where he does not live is criminal and a felony. And if Vogel refuses to take action just might be enough to get her removed from office. Will be interesting to see if she will risk her ass to protect his. Clearly this man has no problem in breaking laws.
The bottom line is he wants to keep the seat.
He is clearly using a fake residency just to vote and keep the job. Do hope he ends up with felony. This is step 1 in cleaning up KW.
Er, JIMINKEYWEST, how do you mean that might be enough to get State Attorney Vogel removed from office? By the voters in 2012, or by some other means? If by some other means, short of grabbing Vogel and putting her on a boat and hauling her out to sea and dropping chum in the sea and hanging her over it head first with a rope tied around her feet while the sharks gather and she agrees to resign, in exchange for being taken back aboard and back to dry land, this ex-lawyer thinks it would be a long, steep, probably futile task trying to get rid of her.
Don’t you just love it that Dean and his lawyer Halpern are aiming at blaming the Supervisor of Elections for Dean lying to the Supervisor of Elections about where he really lived all this time, and in that way he was deceived by himself into believing he wasn’t doing anything wrong?
Why would you harm a nice shark LOL
As I have said before Key West is one huge family of corruption that protect each other and investigate them self so is never a risk to anyone . Only hope is the Feds come and clean up the mess. Do hope someone has the time to investigate ALL of the KW voters. Just might be hundreds of them that do not qualify or even live in FL. With the amount of corruption in KW that has been pointed out in the Blue how can anyone we be trusted. Even murder by cops get covered up. Lost all trust in KW.
It is time to replace all of them but yes know that will never happen. The town looks like Mayberry but is ran by Boss Hogg.
I spoke with an attorney from the Florida Division of Elections in Tallahassee by calling the Voter Fraud Hotline 1.877.868.3737. He was aware of the situation and that Dean’s vote would be reviewed by the Canvasing Board as to if the vote can count, however they do not determine if it is voter fraud.
Voter fraud is a separate issue all together and if charges are brought that is up to the State Attorney Catherine Vogel. I’m pretty sure that I read or heard somewhere that Dean his son and three others were registered to vote at the Bahama street address? One hundred gallons of water over nearly a two year period used by five people? The Dean family must be dirty… It sounds like voter fraud is rampant in KW.
How many other business owners live outside of KW and use their business address to vote on local elections that directly affect their business? It would be interesting to know the addresses of the 500 people who did the early voting. How many elections have been decided by five-hundred votes or less?
KKH, I seriously doubt, from talking with the Supervisor of Elections when I voted early last week, that she is interested in going after anybody who lives outside of Key West, and she is not interested either in going after people who live elsewhere 10-11 months a year, and owns and homesteads property in Key West, particularly, Truman Annex, and votes in Key West.
I do not believe the city canvassing board is the final authority, although it sure will make it easy for State Attorney Vogel to beg off, if the canvassing board, city commissioners Jimmy Weekley, Clayton Lopez and city clerk Cheryl Smith side with Dean.
While I don’t find this to be particularly newsworthy as breaking news, “KKH” does make a good point that there may be other non residents using their Key West business address to vote in order to affect decisions that may help their business. Maybe the business owners don’t feel they are being properly represented, which I find to be the greater issue.
But if it is indeed voter fraud, then let the chips fall where they may.
My guess is that Jimmy Weekly will have a hard time voting against him as they both go way back in politics, and Commission Lopez may feel the same regardless of the law. I suspect they are both beholden to him in various ways. It is a small town and
Dean has a lot of pull.
Mr Dean is not worried. If Florida State’s Attorney would not bring charges against Key West policemen for killing a tourist then voter fraud is like a walk in the park . How much money does this jack a__ make a year on this board?
To so nonchalantly cast his vote when everyone is watching tells me the fix must already be in.
Let’s see what the canvasing board will do on Friday! The Blue Paper needs to be there to cover the story. Have any of the canvassing board members been approached by Mr. Dean’s people? Ask them. Will Clayton stand up for the law and what is right? Should Jimmy recuse himself because Mr. Dean votes in his district – seems a conflict of interest doesn’t it? And what if the canvassing board folds – is there any recourse?
Could politics be any nore messed up on this little island? Let’s just wait and see how Election day turns out! Mr. Dean’s voting outside of the district where he actually lives may be only the tip of the iceberg. Don’t you wonder how many others vote in districts other than where they live? How would we know? And what about all the absentee ballots sent out of town or out of state – are they voting legally in Key West elections? I don’t know the answer to that. Could some people even be voting twice in different states? I think these are all important questions we need to know the answers to, so we can have confidence in the honesty of the results of our elections. Voting is handled very professionally and honestly in the precincts here, but we need to understand more about the ballots cast outside the publics eyes.
Yes. I definitely think the canvassing board’s decision has been pre-arranged. We’ll know for sure on Friday.
I hope that nobody checks to see where Ed Knight has been voting all of these years.
Mr. Knight has been voting using his address at 1 Thompson Island. The only unusual thing about his recent voting history is that he switched from Republican to Democrat in February 2014 and then back to Republican in May 2015. I’m curious what caused that shuffle.
http://flvoters.com/by_number/1138/78693_edward_b_knight.html
Quacks like voter fraud, walks like voter fraud, smells like voter fraud…Must be voter fraud….Having said that, ! sadly tend to agree with what “nyminute”as to Mr. Dean experiencing any negative consequences…
Just maybe this is the beginning of finding out why some are staying in office. Might be hundreds of fraud voters but nobody did the job of checking. Will take a lot of time and work to clean this up. Money can buy votes.
Perhaps the city commission would consider changing the people on its canvassing board at its next meeting on Wednesday so as to spare it’s current members the anxiety of having a possible conflict or friendship with Mr Dean. Appointing another commissioner like Ms Johnstown would prevent that and give voters a bit more confidence. It IS a small town,right?
Zybop, it would take time to do what you suggest, public notice has to be given ahead of time for that kind of move at a city commission meeting. Personally, I’m glad to see this fall onto Jimmy Weekley and Clayton Lopez’s heads. They accepted the job, so they deserve the pickle they now are in. If they fold, give in to Bob Dean, then the suggestion for how to get State Attorney Catherine Vogel to resign, which I gave to JIMINKEYWEST, should work just as well for Weekley and Lopez, and city clerk Cheryl Smith.
some information, but maybe not too useful
State Attorney Catherine Vogel,
http://www.keyssao.org/home/report-fraud
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
http://myfloridalegal.com/contact.nsf/contact?Open&Section=Attorney_General
Florida Governor Rick Scott
http://www.flgov.com/contact-gov-scott/email-the-governor/
Director of the Florida Division of Elections Maria Matthews
[email protected]
Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner
[email protected]
Florida Division of Elections
[email protected]
Monroe County Supervisor of Elections Joyce Griffin
[email protected]