JEFF LEEN, DEXTER FILKINS and BETTY CORTINA Herald Staff Writers

Our Dream Retirement Home in Hialeah, where many residents suffer from schizophrenia, drug addiction and manic-depression, was the target of a highly organized vote drive by campaign workers for successful mayoral candidate Raul Martinez . At least two dozen residents -- or about two-thirds of the patients -- voted in the hotly contested Nov. 9 runoff. No one knows which patients voted for Martinez, a convicted felon , or his opponent, Nilo Juri.

But this much is clear:

* Martinez's supporters went to Our Dream to register the patients to vote -- contrary to election rules. Most of the patients were signed up within a few weeks of the Oct. 12 registration deadline.

* All 24 voted absentee, though the polling place for their precinct is right across the street.

* All of their applications for absentee ballots were witnessed by ardent Martinez supporters.

* Among the Our Dream patients who voted were two convicted felons -- an apparent violation of Florida law.

The ballots from Our Dream are among those involved in a federal investigation into allegations of election fraud, and a lawsuit filed by Juri. Martinez defeated Juri by 273 votes. He won thanks to a near 2-to-1 margin in absentee ballots.

Raul Martinez 's camp has denied wrongdoing. Martinez did not return a Miami Herald reporter's call Friday.

A reporter who visited the home found people wailing and mumbling to themselves. The administrator of the home, Johnny Machado, refused to let Herald reporters interview many of the residents, complaining that the patients were upset by reporters' questions.

"These people are crazy," Machado said. "I can't permit it. They are all bent out of shape.

"I don't have nothing to hide," Machado said. "Everything was done the American way."

The facility at 1640 Palm Ave., has capacity for 42 residents and is licensed as an adult congregate living facility, inspected by the state Agency for Healthcare Administration. Patients are referred there by the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, said Louis J. Terminello, attorney for Our Dream.

"He has about 40 patients there," Terminello said. "They're all there as a result of a dual diagnosis. They all have to have an emotional problem and a drug or alcohol problem."

Gloria Suarez, a state nursing supervisor who inspected Our Dream in late 1990, described the patient population as schizophrenics, manic depressives, borderline personalities, street people and people with long-standing mental illness who are taking medications.

"They're a mental health population that are stabilized on medication, but they still need supervision," Suarez said.

Florida law says that people with emotional problems can be prohibited from voting if a court has deemed them mentally incompetent. The courts regularly inform Metro of such people, and election workers strike their names from the voter rolls, said Assistant Supervisor of Elections James Kohanek.

State officials say most of the patients at Our Dream have a legal right to vote.

"That's one of the things they have, a right to vote," Suarez said. "They must be offered the opportunity to vote."

Martinez's campaign, like many others in Dade, had an aggressive strategy to register voters and gather absentee ballots. County rules allow campaign workers to obtain absentee ballots for those unable to go to the polls, and deliver the ballots to the elections office.

Martinez's workers visited Our Dream Sept. 29, when they registered 14 people to vote. Thirteen of those had never registered before in Dade County, records show.

"Apparently Raul Martinez 's people approached the manager of the place and said, 'Hey, we want to register voters here,' " said Terminello, attorney for Our Dream. "So far, I think that's pretty routine.

"In an effort to open up the political process to the voters, the manager (of Our Dream) had said, 'That's part of the political process, that's American.' Although they have emotional problems, that doesn't mean they should be disenfranchised and denied the right to vote."

Four more Our Dream residents registered to vote or renewed their registration in the next several days.

Election rules say that people authorized to register voters may only do it at specific sites designated by county officials. Twenty of the Our Dream absentee voters were registered by Milagros Abaroa, who works as a secretary at El Sol de Hialeah, a Hialeah weekly newspaper founded by Martinez. Abaroa was restricted to registering voters at El Sol de Hialeah, but Terminello said the voters were registered at Our Dream.

"There is no door-to-door registration in this state," Kohanek said.

Terminello said Machado was unaware of any violations in the registration process.

"We did not participate in the registration process," Terminello said.

Abaroa refused to speak to Herald reporters.

"I really don't want to talk to anybody," Abaroa said. "And I don't want to talk to the Miami Herald. They're biased and they're going to write whatever they want."

Twenty-three of the Our Dream absentee ballots were witnessed by Abaroa and by Glen Rice, a Hialeah police officer who worked closely with Martinez during the campaign.

Rice did not respond to several messages left by a Herald reporter.

Machado was not present during the absentee balloting process, said Terminello, Our Dream's lawyer.

"Apparently there came a time later on when the Martinez campaign came back and assisted the people with getting absentee ballots," Terminello said. "None of the management or employees of the facility witnessed or participated in the execution of the absentee ballots."

Terminello said Machado was not aware of any improper influence exerted during the signing absentee ballots.

"He was not, nor were his employees, close enough to that process to know," Terminello said. "If the inference is that the facility tried to assist Raul Martinez in getting elected, that's ridiculous."

Terminello said he has spoken with 11 Our Dream voters and was assured by them that they were not coerced into voting for a particular candidate.

"Of the nine out of 11 that I considered competent, they all asserted that they voted of their own free will," Terminello said. "Maybe they should not be permitted to file absentee ballots, but that's the law."

The polling place for the precinct that includes Our Dream is right across Palm Avenue, three lanes of one-way traffic, in the American Legion hall at 1697 Palm Ave.

Terminello said many of the patients, though able to walk, are frightened of going out alone and therefore would be likely to vote absentee.

"I suspect that somebody could see that they're an easy mark and take advantage of them," Terminello said. "If somebody did that, it was in the camps of the candidates. If somebody manipulated these ballots that's very upsetting to us also."

Among the Our Dream voters were two convicted felons .

State law makes it illegal for convicted felons to vote unless a court has restored their civil rights. But it's mostly up to the voter to tell elections officials. When a person registers to vote, he is asked whether he has ever been convicted of a felony. If the answer is yes, he must produce documentation showing that his rights have been restored.

"If he doesn't, the registration process cannot continue," Kohanek said.

Dade elections officials regularly cancel the registrations of people convicted of felonies. But if the person is registering for the first time, elections officials do not do a criminal records check. The person registering must swear that his representations are true, and he can be charged with perjury if they are not.

A third voter, Vere Jones, 39, is a fugitive wanted on drug charges.

"There's a felony warrant for cocaine possession issued Feb. 1, 1993," said Metro-Dade Detective Patrick Brickman, of Jones.

State law makes it a third-degree felony for any person to commit "fraud in connection with any vote cast, to be cast, or attempted to be cast." It is also a first-degree misdemeanor for a person to make "a false declaration for assistance in voting."

It is also illegal to coerce someone into voting for a particular candidate "by bribery, menace, threat, or other corruption."

Said Terminello: "If anybody did manipulate these people, they ought to be shot. They should be found and executed, because to take advantage of the mentally ill is an outrage."