Free Republic

In the threadbare border towns of South Texas, one of the country’s poorest regions, enterprising locals like Candelaria Espinoza have long been paid to round up votes for candidates on Election Day. There is even a name for these electoral soldiers of fortune: politiqueras. So when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign arrived in South Texas in February seeking an edge in its uphill battle against Senator Barack Obama, Ms. Espinoza was happy to oblige, for a price. The campaign paid her and seven other members of her family $100 to $200 each to knock on doors, deliver fliers and...

Texas AG office is investigating fraud allegations Allegations of voter fraud and a poorly administered primary election in Jim Wells County played a part in dual rulings Monday from District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos calling for a new election to pick a Precinct 1 justice of the peace and Precinct 3 county commissioner. It was unclear Monday when the new election will take place. After Alice Mayor Juan Rodriguez lost his race for justice of the peace by nine votes to pharmacist and former Jim Wells County Democratic Party Chair Guadalupe "Lupe" Martinez and 14-year incumbent Oswald "Wally" Alanis lost...

As surely as winter rains bring Texas wildflowers in the spring, elections in Jim Wells County sprout complaints of election hanky-panky. Sixty years after a future president earned the sarcastic nickname "Landslide Lyndon" by edging Coke Stevenson for a U.S. Senate seat with ballots stuffed into the infamous Box 13, the smell of dirty tricks again is in the air. "Some people in Jim Wells will get indicted," predicted District Attorney Joe Frank Garza, who lost his bid for a fifth term in the 79th District by about 350 votes to Alice lawyer Armando Barrera. "I'm not going to contest...

Campaign workers’ role is controversial A controversial figure is emerging early in the campaign season for the 2008 elections and she’s not even on the ballot. Candidates hoping to win their parties’ nomination in March are taking sides on using paid campaign workers, or politiqueras to aid their run for office. With the deadline to file for the March primaries still months away, established candidates are taking a position on the issue. District attorney candidate Peter Zavaletta and incumbent District Attorney Armando Villalobos said this week that they will not employ politiqueras, who are typically older women that that are...

McALLEN — Just as quickly as politiqueras could breathe a sigh of relief last week, the rug was pulled out from under them. A federal injunction issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Tuesday ordered Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office to immediately cease enforcing a piece of election law that criminalizes people who handle or possess others’ mail-in ballots. But the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the preliminary injunction against the AG on Friday, and now politiqueras can still be prosecuted for merely possessing someone’s mail-in ballot. Hidalgo County Elections Administrator...

Attorney General Greg Abbott announced Thursday in Corpus Christi that his office has indicted a Robstown woman on felony charges in connection with voter fraud. Maria Dora Flores, 65, of Robstown was arrested on two counts of felony voting fraud and taken to the Nueces County Jail by investigators with the attorney general's office. Abbott said this was his office's first felony charge in connection with voting fraud and follows nearly a dozen misdemeanor indictments in the state since last summer. "The difference in her case is she actually cast a ballot for someone else," said Angela Hale, spokeswoman for...

EDINBURG — An Hidalgo County jury found two San Juan women not guilty on voter fraud charges Friday morning. Maria Louisa Rodriguez and her daughter of the same name had both voted twice in the May 2005 San Juan city election, but their defense attorney argued they were not mentally competent at the time of the incident. “They’re not all there, and these politiqueras took advantage of them,” said attorney Jesse Contreras. “These ladies suffer from a mental illness as we speak, and back then on May 17.” The mother and daughter were taken to vote on Election Day after...

Friday, May 5, 2006 Nueces County Woman Sentenced For Voter Fraud Josefina Marinas Suarez sentenced, fined for mail-in ballot violations CORPUS CHRISTI – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today announced the sentencing of a Nueces County woman who illegally handled mail-in ballots in the May 2005 Robstown ISD elections. Josefina Marinas Suarez, 44, was sentenced in Nueces County Court of Law No. 1 to one year deferred adjudication probation and a $500 fine after she pled guilty to one count of possessing an official ballot or carrier envelope of another. During the probation, Suarez will be prohibited from assisting any...

High turnout prompts a probe by secretary of state SAN DIEGO - A dead man sending off for a mail-in ballot for the March primary was just one of the clues that brought investigators from the Texas attorney general's office to Duval County. Assistant District Attorney Jon West had only been on the job for about three months when the voter fraud allegations started surfacing. The post office returned several rejected mail-in ballot applications to residents who said that they had not sent them. And in one case, a woman complained that her father could not have sent a mail-in...

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,...

Women accused of voting twice in San Juan election EDINBURG — A grand jury indicted two women Wednesday for voting twice in the San Juan city election. Maria Louisa Rodriguez and her daughter of the same name were charged with illegal voting, a third-degree felony that carries a two to 10-year prison sentence and a maximum $10,000 fine. "It’s not fair because (the politiqueras) pressured us to do it," the daughter said. "They told us to go ahead and vote again because it was all right." The politiqueras who brought the mother and daughter to vote for a second time...

McALLEN — A group of McAllen residents sent a petition to Gov. Rick Perry this week requesting state involvement in a pending investigation of the recent city elections. The move follows weeks of complaints that politiqueras, or paid political operatives, defrauded elderly residents of their votes in the May 7 city elections. Chris Ardis, one of about 15 people who circulated the petition, said she and the others collected 211 signatures. Ardis writes a weekly column for The Monitor but is not employed by the newspaper. The petition reads as follows: "We, the undersigned residents of McAllen, Texas, request that...

Now that Mexican President Vicente Fox has signed a law allowing Mexican nationals living abroad to vot in the 2006 presidential elections, I wonder if politiqueras working along the border in the Rio Grande Valley have already called the PRI and the PAN to offer their services on getting the vote in.

McALLEN — Sgt. Isreal Pacheco of the Texas Rangers believes recent revelations of possible vote-buying demand aggressive investigation of the influence of politiqueras on local elections. "I’ve never talked to the news media so much, but I feel like this is an important case," Pacheco said. "The politiqueras are out there doing illegal things, and they’re interfering with the voting process, which to me is very important. And, they’re interfering with the elderly folks, and they’re taking advantage of them, and I think it needs to be looked at." The case stems from covert audio and video recordings made by...

ALICE — The rich tradition of election hanky-panky is alive and well in South Texas, according to Eric Opiela, who, with his recent loss in a state representative race, counts himself as its latest victim. But to those who oversee elections here, the ghosts of the legendary "Duke of Duval" George Parr and the crooked politics of years past have been exorcised. Opiela, a Republican lawyer from Karnes City, lost the District 35 race on Nov. 2 to Yvonne Gonzalez-Toureilles of Alice by about 835 votes out of more than 45,000 cast. Although he carried five of the district's seven...

EDINBURG — With general voting in the primary election just days away, the Texas Rangers have begun an investigation of the mail ballot fraud allegations that arose last week. Texas Ranger Sgt. Israel Pacheco said he started his inquiry Thursday after meeting with Hidalgo County Elections Administrator Teresa Navarro to get details of the complaints. There is no deadline for this investigation, Pacheco said. "We’ll just be looking into things as they come." Two voters in McAllen and two in Weslaco, all older than 65, complained that when their mail ballots arrived, they were already sealed and included a note:...

Some Hidalgo County voters claim harassment by campaign workers. EDINBURG — With election day just eight days away, the list of questionable election practices in Hidalgo County grew to include complaints of harassment by three politiqueras, or paid campaign workers, against elderly voters who requested ballots by mail. The complaints were filed against workers for several different campaigns, including Lloyd Doggett, who is running for the U.S. Congressional seat in District 25; both candidates for the 92nd state District Court judge’s race, incumbent Edward Aparicio and challenger Eric Jarvis; Lupe Treviño, who is running for Hidalgo County sheriff; and Aaron...