POLL POSITION [South Texas Primary Election]

The Monitor ^ | March 05,2006 | James Osborne

[SwinneySwitch]

Officials watch politiqueras following voter fraud indictments

Every election you’ll find them outside your neighborhood polling station, usually behind the wheel of a large van loaded with the elderly and disabled — voter registration cards in hand.

They like to call themselves "campaign workers," as do the politicians who most make use of their services, but everyone else refers to them as politiqueras, a derivative of the Spanish word "politico," or politician.

For a fee that some estimate to be as high as $10,000, a politiquera guarantees so many votes (usually 300 to 500). Using a list of registered voters, they will take people, mostly senior citizens, to the polls or offer assistance in filling in their mail-in ballots.

Once the election results are in, the loser, who probably hired a few of them, will inevitably complain about their presence, while the winners, who almost certainly hired a few of them, brush off questions on the subject.

Typically, that’s where the dialogue ends.

But in December, a Hidalgo County grand jury brought indictments against 10 people, most of them politiqueras, in connection with alleged voter fraud in the May 2004 city elections in McAllen and La Joya. The McAllen allegations involve the massive number of mail-in ballots received by Ric Godinez, who eventually lost to Mayor Richard Cortez in a runoff.

Many of those ballots were found to be filled out in the same handwriting, a few even in the names of the deceased; and, while there’s nothing illegal about helping a incapable voter fill out a ballot, failing to identify yourself as assisting is a felony.

How many of those people will actually stand trial remains to be seen — District Attorney Rene Guerra is particularly fickle about prosecuting voter fraud cases — but the indictments have set off a chain reaction of politiquera bashing, most notably from Hidalgo County Democratic Party Chairman Juan Maldonado.

The longtime politico and former mayor of San Juan has since gotten agreements from virtually every Democrat running in Tuesday’s primary to pay politiqueras by check instead of cash, which he says will provide greater transparency and cut down on the fraud many officials are now calling endemic to the politiquera system.

Many observers reject such characterizations as woefully overblown, that politiqueras largely provide a valuable service of increasing voter turnout.

Whatever your opinion of politiqueras and what they do, one thing you can be certain of when you walk into the polls on Tuesday is that the politiquera stepping out of the van in front of you will be more closely watched than ever before.

___

James Osborne covers PSJA and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4428.

[SwinneySwitch]

Joel Martinez
Clara Casas helps elderly voter Roberto Garza cast his vote on a portable voting machine in the car Friday in front of the Jose Pepe Salinas Center early voting substation in Pharr.

Clara is a politiquera.

[Theodore R.]

It's amazing how these South TX proponents of "democracy" keep voting for the same ol' same ol' and keep getting the same ol' results.

[SwinneySwitch]

Politiquera Ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.

[deport]

Every election you’ll find them outside your neighborhood polling station, usually behind the wheel of a large van loaded with the elderly and disabled — voter registration cards in hand.

---

With the use of 'early voting' you'll see these type activities during early voting and on election day. In early voting a lot of the locations maybe in a retail center such as a mall or large box store. They'll set up a departure time, go by and pick them up, let them vote and have a shopping outing at the same time..... 'voting day out.'

[texas booster]

Once the election results are in, the loser, who probably hired a few of them, will inevitably complain about their presence, while the winners, who almost certainly hired a few of them, brush off questions on the subject.

These politiqueras gather the vote after being hired by a political organization, and 99% of the votes they gather go to the candidate that hired them.

Next year, if a different candidate hires them, the votes all get switched en masse.

That is my problem with politiqueras. Votes are for sale, and the machinations show that there is no fair distribution of votes. Forget democrat vs republican in the vote counts, these are democrat vs democrat exchanges. What the voters want is ignored, if the voter even is aware enough to have an opinion.

[wolfcreek]

This isn't a whole lot different than when We elect Senators and Reps. from our individual states. Each represents a certain number of people. The trouble is, as is with the politiquera, they don't always vote in the way the people who elected them want them to vote. Maybe We should consider some sort of on-line voting system instead of trusting some asshole politician with our opinions.

[kittymyrib]

Too bad we can't give South Texas back to Mexico. I'd wager that at least 50% of those voting are not legal citizens of the US. The Democrat chairman's solution of making the politiqueras pay for votes by check shows you the typical logic found in the Mexican parts of Texas.

[Theodore R.]

It does not appear that many illegals are voting in Webb County to me. Of the 95,000 registered voters, usually only 35,000 come to the polls, more in the popular Democrat primaries than in general elections. When Laredo Democrat Tony Sanchez ran for governor in 2002, some 50,000 REGISTERED Laredo voters did not come to the polls.

[DaGman]

This is not something exclusive to Dems. Both parties use the politiqueras, or coyotes as they are also known as in S Texas. What you have to be careful of is that they will work both sides of the street telling both sides they will work for only them while hauling voters to the polls for the other.

[houeto]

Too bad we can't give South Texas back to Mexico.

Too bad we can't TAKE south Texas BACK from Mexico...what a bunch of losers...yes...I'm talking to you!