Accusations of fraud as early voting begins tomorrow in St. Johns County

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — As early voting begins in St. Johns County, there are accusations of fraud.

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The St. Johns County Republican Party says someone put fake endorsement cards out ahead of the August primary.

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“It’s a very close knockoff, but it’s fraudulent,” Chairman Denver Cook said. “When you talk about election interference and election fraud, I don’t know how it could be worse than this.”

The fake one showed a slate of candidates that were opposite of who was truly endorsed by St. Johns GOP. Chairman Denver Cook said he’s gotten over a dozen calls about the fake mail, adding he’s never seen something like this before.

“To do this, it’s angering, frustrating and it concerns me about behavior when you talk voter intimidations, voter fraud, the level of anger that’s been produced,” he said.

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Associate professor of political science for the University of North Florida, Sean Freeder, said something like this isn’t cheap to pull off and the goal is to cause confusion.

“In these close races if you can confuse 5 percent of voters, that’s potentially a huge victory and with an increasingly easy way to manufacture, mass produce these kind of mailers in different races, you will probably see more and more of this,” he said.

Cook believes it’s damaging to election integrity.

“To come out the day before voters come out for early voting, with this level of fraud, claiming they are in fact the county party, is just beyond the bounds of reason, acceptability, and potentially not only voter fraud, out of state at federal level but it can also be mail fraud,” he said.

Cook said FDLE is aware and he said if they find out who did this, they’re going to press charges.

The following is a statement from the Chairman of the Republican Party of Florida Evan Power:

“The Republican Party of Florida and the St. Johns County Republican Party are the only organizations qualified to speak officially on behalf of our party in St. Johns County. We are taking this matter very seriously and are investigating. No Florida voter should be misled by anonymous, phony groups pretending to speak for the GOP.”

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