City gave to accused ‘boletera’ ballot broker

Source: Miami Herald

Emelina Llanes seems to be a lucky woman – and one with friends in high places.

This Hialeah activist, denounced as a boletera, or ballot broker, by two former police officers, lives in a townhouse that’s been repaired with some $58,000 worth of city funds. She drives a Nissan Xterra that once belonged to the city mayor.

And, though she doesn’t quite remember, Llanes is such a valued campaign worker that even Florida Gov. Rick Scott paid her thousands of dollars to mobilize voters on his behalf.

In recent interviews with El Nuevo Herald, Llanes said she’s tired of her critics, like former mayor Raul Martinez, who insist on calling her a boletera. According to Llanes, a charming 74-year-old widow, she’s never received special perks for her political involvement and assures she is not a boletera.

“What I do is help people,” she said. “Nobody has ever given me a thing.”

In the case of her townhouse, public records show that in 1996 and 2007, she benefited from municipal grants aimed at helping low-income residents do home improvements and keep their properties up to code. Currently, her townhouse is valued at $96,000, according to the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser.

When she received these grants, Llanes said was a loyal campaign volunteer for then-mayors Martinez and Julio Robaina. She denied that her political activism helped her get the grants.

Llanes throwing a bottle at videographer:


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/22/v-print/3016048/city-gave-to-accused-boletera.html#storylink=cpy

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/22/3016048/city-gave-to-accused-boletera.html#disqus_thread

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This is of interest because she worked for Rick Scott and received $5,000. It looks like absentee ballots turn elections in Florida and there are many that were turned right at the end due to the counting of absentee ballots.

---- related excerpt:

Llanes also said she learned much of what she knows about politics by working on Martinez’ campaigns. On Wednesday, Martínez recognized that Llanes had organized a party on his behalf once in the mid-90s. However, he said she was never a campaign worker.

“She’s a shameless liar,” he said.

In recent years, Llanes has become a popular campaign employee at the city, county and even state level. In 2010, Scott paid her $5,000 to work on his gubernatorial campaign, according to financial records.

On Wednesday, Llanes refused to explain what her role was in that campaign.

“Anybody can give me 5,000 bucks”, she said. “Nobody should care who gives that to me.”

Then she denied ever receiving the payment.

“I don’t know anything about those 5,000 bucks,” she said. “That’s so much money.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/22/v-print/3016048/city-gave-to-accused-boletera.html#storylink=cpy