Voter fraud discovered on eve of Early St Johns County Voting

With the arrival of their Friday morning mail, local Historic City News reporters found themselves asking, “Will the real St Johns County Republican Executive Committee please stand up?”  In a criminal act of blatant voter fraud, the scale of which has not been seen in recent history, registered Republicans throughout St Johns County discovered obscure, plain white envelopes in their mail, addressed to them and containing what purported to be a list of candidates for various offices that were “endorsed” by the Republican Party.

The obvious problem with that being, only weeks earlier, an almost identical palm card was already being distributed by the Republican Party.  On closer examination, we found that the recommended candidates on the original cards were different!  Had the Party abandoned their entire slate of candidates in the 2024 Primary Election?  The deeper we looked starting Friday morning, found us mired in complaints by lunchtime.

“The entire purpose of partisan Primary Elections has been bastardized in recent years,” said the Executive Secretary of Ladies Memorial Association of St Augustine Inc., Michael Gold, who was the founding editor of Historic City News twenty-five years ago.  “The process originally set out as a way to caucus voters from several disparate political parties in order to select who they each thought was their best candidate to compete in the November General Election.”

The realities of strong, but lopsided, voter registration pools, like the one held by the Republican Party in St Johns County, creates a sketchy opportunity for a “write in candidate”, with no financial investment nor requirement to participate in the campaign process, to pop up on the last day of candidate qualifying and effectively deny anyone who is not a Republican, in this example, from their opportunity to have a voice in who will govern them for the next 2-4 years.

Is that illegal?  No.  Does it serve the best interest of the public?  No.

A regular Historic City News contributor, Jaime Parham, who is currently a member of the St Johns County Republican Executive Committee and who was appointed interim Chairman by the state Republican Party following the ouster of Dr Blake Martin Paterson, has written extensively over the past year about what he describes as a coup d’Etat that placed Denver Cook in the Chairman’s seat.  Cook is now himself a candidate for local office, attempting to unseat St Johns County Clerk of Court, Brandon Patty.

Parham talked to Historic City News Friday afternoon about the apparently fraudulent mailing of an unknown number of the “fake” St Johns County GOP candidate endorsement cards.  However, Parham says that both cards were formulated on Denver Cook’s watch, and neither one of them was formulated in compliance with Rule 8 of the Florida GOP, making them illegitimate political electioneering communications.

“That is disgusting. I denounce voter fraud in any form,” Parham said of Friday’s unattested, fraudulently mailed advertising piece.  “The Republican Party should not be in the business of endorsing one Republican candidate over another during a Primary Election.  Period.”

Parham believes that the endorsement beneficiaries of first palm card only care about “fake endorsements” when they are not their own.  Parham said the endorsement advertisements on both cards are frauds.  So now, we have TWO fraudulent voter guides.

The local Republican Executive Committee, under sanction of the Republican Party of Florida, has “core jobs” it is supposed to be completing.  In St Johns County, over the past two years, under the leadership of both Paterson and Cook, the record of compliance and success has been abysmal.

“We are supposed to be holding local voter registration drives for the Republican Party,” Parham explained.  “Right now, St Johns County is ranked 66th out of 67 counties in Republican voter registration.  This is a core job.”

Another core job the county Republican Executive Committee performs for the State Party is the training and establishment of qualified poll watchers registered with the local Supervisor of Elections office.  In analysis of the mid-term elections held in 2022, the St Johns County Republican Party had zero poll watchers.  According to published reports, the county finished 63rd out of 67 counties in the entire State, ranked by voter turnout.

During this period of neglect of core jobs, Parham says certain party officials set about to feather their own nest, tending to their own political campaigns at the expense of their obligations to the Party.  For example, the original palm card was paid for in full by the local REC – not the campaigns of the endorsed candidates. 

Also, about $150,000 has gone unaccounted for at the hands of the since removed chairman.  The money was spent covertly.  Then, when Parham took office as Chairman, the treasurer refused to allow Parham to inspect the check records.  The State Party intervened ordering the records be released, however, when that request was not honored, the Party removed the treasurer, Bill McMahon, from office.

Parham also points out that in-kind financial benefits derived by the candidates named on the original endorsement cards remain fully unaccounted by the St Johns County Republican Executive Committee and it’s elected precinct committeemen and committeewomen.  Therefore, they are unlikely to appear in the candidates periodic financial disclosures. 

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement was notified of the continuing financial fiasco.  The State Party continues to investigate aided in their enforcement efforts in part by Florida’s Ethics Commission. The St Johns County Sheriff’s Office is collecting evidence for fingerprint analysis taken from the latest “fake” endorsement palm cards. 

Historic City News will update this story as in person Early Voting commences today and continues through August 17, 2024.  The Primary Election Day is August 20, 2024.