A Florida-based government watchdog found no evidence of “ghost candidates,” or unaffiliated candidates being forced into races to siphon votes, in this year’s midterm elections in the United States. State.
Ghost candidates appeared in three Florida Senate races in the last presidential election cycle, when three non-party candidates were ‘essentially bribed’ to put their names on the ballot in order to take away votes from Democrats in vying, according to the nonpartisan watchdog. Integrity Florida group.
“Criminal use of ghost applicants has not resurfaced at the state level in 2022, likely because many of those who took advantage of the program face charges that will result in convictions and possible jail time. “, said the nonprofit organization. says in his new reportpublished on Tuesday.
Integrity Florida said that this year there was a report of a potential ghost candidate in a smaller county commission race near Orlando, but the accused candidate says he was on the ballot as than a serious candidate.
Republicans won in all three districts that saw a shadow candidate program in 2020, and while Integrity Florida notes that two of the districts would have gone red anyway, one district was “clearly” influenced by the program.
That year, an unaffiliated candidate named Alex Rodriguez ran against incumbent Democratic Senator José Javier Rodríguez and Republican challenger Ileana Garcia for Florida’s 37th District.
Integrity Florida points out that Alex Rodriguez, who notably showed up with the same last name as the incumbent, “did not campaign but was the beneficiary of a black money ad campaign” and received more of 6,000 votes in the race.
Garcia ended up ousting the incumbent Democrat by just over 30 votes, “indicating that the candidate was successful in siphoning off the incumbent Democrat’s votes,” the report said. Reports of phantom candidates were recorded in 2018 for the same purpose.
The Tampa Bay Times first reported on the new report.
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