A former election watchdog in Florida who was fired for citing misconduct among Orange County officials comes forward with more to say about alleged ballot mishandling in the battleground state.
Brian Freid, a whistleblower and former director of information systems for the Orange County Supervisor of Elections, filed an affidavit with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement saying he has witnessed a “serious lack of governance, oversight, rules, Ethical Standards, and Regulations” in handling ballots during the 2020 presidential election.
In his testimony, Freid, a lifelong registered Democrat, cites that OCSOE ignored evidence that criminals had voted, that ballots were mailed to deceased residents despite OCSOE being notified by members of the family, and that minimal efforts were made to verify that family members of registered voters were sincere in their questions.
Freid goes on to say that his former office has twice failed to follow up on cyber breaches of sensitive voter data as required by state law. The digital hijackings came years after foreign hackers were implicated in hacking voter databases in Illinois and Arizona.
Florida electoral law requires that an elector be removed from the roll after missing two consecutive presidential elections. Freid, who spoke to Just the News, says he has seen ballots mailed to residents who haven’t voted in more than 20 years.
“So someone is voting on your behalf,” Freid told Just the News, noting that a voter must request a mail-in ballot to receive one.
Freid notes in his affidavit that the mail-in ballot request form does not require the applicant to provide their contact information, so there is no follow-up to verify that the person requested a ballot. “It is very easy to commit a fraud that requires a vote by mail,” said Freid only the news.
The collection of voting, the process of collecting voting in the absence of the name of other voters and who sends them, is a large deal in Florida. In October, the State Department launched a criminal investigation after Democratic candidate for Orange County Commissioner Cynthia Harris provided probable evidence that debt collectors are paid $10 per ballot they collect from another voter.
Such action is a third-degree felony under state law punishable by up to five years in prison.
