Absentee Ethics

Questionable as these flyers might be, they seem to have spawned an even more dubious countermove. Last week postcards in Spanish began appearing in mailboxes throughout west Miami-Dade. Bearing the seal of the State of Florida, a nonexistent Tallahassee address, and the words "Alerta de Fraude" ("Fraud Alert"), they warn voters about the evils of absentee ballot fraud. The state Division of Elections sent out no such notice.

Leahy has heard about this postcard and has fielded complaints about the original Diaz de la Portilla pamphlet. "We've been getting a number of calls asking us, 'Is [the ballot application] proper? Is this legal?'" Leahy says. "We won't go into proper, but it's legal.