Two arrested in Miami Dade for election fraud. Miami Dade County temp. election support specialist caught unlawfully marking absentee ballots, registered dead people. Pens and pencils prohibited in work area, but Coego had a pen in her purse. Curgil, 33, submitted unlawful voter registrations, worked for marijuana advocacy group-NBC Miami

Update: Coego also worked during the 2012 election for Miami Dade: "Coego was hired by a temp agency to work as an elections support specialist, and was to be paid $14.69 an hour. She had worked for the department once before as a temporary worker during the 2012 election, though it’s unclear for how long. That year, she was assigned to the voter services division, which handles petitions, voter correspondence, calls and mail ballots."
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10/28/16, "2 Women Arrested for Allegedly Committing Election Fraud in Miami-Dade," NBCMiami.com, Brian Hamacher

"Gladys Coego, 74, and Tomika Curgil, 33, were arrested in unrelated incidents in Miami-Dade, authorities said.

Coego faces two counts of marking or designating on the ballot of another, while Curgil faces five counts of submitting false voter registration information.

Coego was booked into the Miami-Dade jail where she was being held on $10,000 bond Friday, records showed. Curgil was being held on $125,000 bond. It's unknown if they've hired attorneys.

"Our law enforcement effort against these election law violators was swift and resulted in an immediate arrest of the wrongdoers," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. "Anyone who attempts to undermine the democratic process should recognize that there is an enforcement partnership...in place to thwart such efforts and arrest those involved."

According to the state attorney's office, Coego had been hired by the Miami-Dade Elections Department Monday as a temporary election support specialist.

A staff member and a supervisor later caught her unlawfully marking some absentee ballots, officials said. 

Election support specialists are prohibited from bringing pens or pencils into the ballot sorting room but Coego had concealed a pen in her purse, officials said.

She later admitted she had marked a number of absentee ballots involving the Miami-Dade mayoral race that had been left blank, marking each for Raquel Regalado.

Regalado is battling incumbent Carlos Gimenez for the position.

Coego didn't give any explanation for her actions and investigators were unable to directly connect her to any of the campaigns, officials said....

Police discovered Coego didn't leave her home during a day of work and then submitted completed and falsified voter registration forms, officials said.

Among the discrepancies in the forms were that Coego had registered people who were deceased, officials said....

 

Curgil was arrested in an unrelated incident after the Miami-Dade Elections Department uncovered discrepancies in a number of new voter applications submitted to them by People United for Medical Marijuana, officials said.

Curgil, who was hired as a canvasser to register voters for People United for Medical Marijuana, allegedly submitted voter registrations to the elections department for people who couldn't be verified as qualified voters....

 

"The person in question was an hourly subcontractor to a vendor hired by the campaign to register Florida voters. Despite having protocols in place for training, quality control and pre-verifications of collected registrations, the registrations submitted by the person in question seem to have slipped through the cracks," United for Care said in a statement. "The campaign is cooperating fully with the State's Attorney's investigation.""

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article111213742.html#storylink=cpy10/28/16, "2 Women Arrested for Allegedly Committing Election Fraud in Miami-Dade," nbcmiami.com, Brian Hamacher"Two South Florida women were arrested Friday morning after allegedly committing election fraud, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.

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Additional source, Miami Herald. Numerous links to Miami Herald version of this story yielded only the headline and photos of the two ladies, with the rest of the page blank. Below, I copied portion of Herald story that had been posted at tcth. Update: Here is Miami Herald's later article that neighbors and family were in disbelief about allegations against the two ladies. "Women charged with elections fraud led unassuming lives," Miami Herald, David Smiley, Monique O. Madan 

10/28/16, "Two women busted for election fraud in Miami-Dade," Miami Herald

Images Coego (left), Curgil (right) from Miami Herald

"A 74-year-old woman tasked with opening envelopes sent by Miami-Dade County voters with their completed mail ballots was arrested Friday after co-workers caught her illegally marking ballots, resulting in an unknown — but small — number of fraudulent votes being cast for mayoral candidate Raquel Regalado.

Investigators linked Gladys Coego [above left], a temporary worker for the county elections department, to two fraudulent votes, but they suspect from witness testimony that she submitted several more.

[…]  In a separate election-fraud case, authorities also arrested a second woman Friday on charges of unlawfully filling out voter-registration forms on behalf of United for Care, the campaign to legalize medical marijuana in Florida.

The Miami-Dade state attorney’s office accused Tomika Curgil [above right], 33, of filling out forms for five people without their consent. She also submitted at least 15 forms for people who apparently don’t exist — and several forms for people who are dead."... (read more)"

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