Local politicians call him the absentee ballot king.
Before each election, Ezzie Thomas appears at the homes of hundreds of black voters and picks up their absentee ballots.
In a predominately black Orlando neighborhood, it seems everyone knows the 73-year-old Thomas. He was the local television repair man for years, extending credit to black residents when no one else would.
But now Thomas' tactics in the spring Orlando mayoral election are at the center of a controversy that once again has put Florida elections in the national spotlight. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated Thomas, closed its case, then reopened it. Now the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights are investigating the FDLE investigation…
Exactly what happened in some of those homes is in dispute. Thomas, who was paid $10,000 by the [Buddy] Dyer campaign, says he only showed voters how to properly fill out ballots. He also would take a ballot if people asked.
But others said Thomas did more.
Some voters handed Thomas blank ballots, without votes marked. Others didn't seal ballots in an envelope.
"He'll tell you where to sign it," said Rose Lee Jackson. "I never sealed none of them."
"He'd be the one to write it all out," said Martha Glenn. "He asked me who do I want to vote for. He had the people's names. He'd call them off and everything."
No one claimed Thomas gave them money. No one saw Thomas change a vote.
Democrats say minority voters accept the practice, which makes it easier to vote. Critics say it invites fraud. It also violates a seldom-enforced law against getting paid to request, collect or physically possess absentee ballots.
Republicans, who have mastered absentee ballot campaigns, say they don't collect voters' ballots by hand.
"I've never heard of that," said consultant Mark Proctor. "That's pretty aggressive."
A week after the election, Brian Mulvaney called Orlando police. "What was happening was illegal," he said.
Months passed. Then he read in the Orlando Sentinel that Dyer had been cleared.
In a letter, FDLE regional director Joyce Dawley said the agency found no basis to charges that Dyer campaign staffers had illegally collected absentee ballots.
Dawley said later that someone - she can't recall who - asked her to issue the letter.
Mulvaney called FDLE and asked how agents could clear Dyer when they had not interviewed him.
Dawley apologized and said she only meant to clear Dyer, not close the entire case.
After she met with Mulvaney, the investigation began again. A week later, FDLE agents talked about big-time charges. Agent Wayne Ivey told the Sentinel the investigation could lead to racketeering charges.
…Meanwhile, Thomas spends his days behind the screen door of his ranch house. For November's general election, he doesn't plan to collect a single absentee ballot.
Read the whole thing. I love the regional officials issuing letters that a candidate has been cleared, on orders from "someone I can't remember."
I am sure it will surprise you all to learn that Buddy Dyer is a Democrat.
