A woman described as a pillar of the Democratic Party in El Paso has been arrested by the Sheriff's Department in connection with an investigation into bogus mail-in ballot requests during recent water board elections.
Sheriff's spokesman Rick Glancey said Patricia "Patty" Lee Piñon, 50, is charged with four counts of tampering with government records, each of which is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
Three of the counts are related to Saturday's El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 board elections. The fourth goes back to last year's mayoral election.
Piñon, who lives in the 200 block of South Collingsworth, was arrested Tuesday and later released on $5,000 bond.
Piñon, who is Democratic chairwoman of Precinct 81 in the Ascarate area, could not be reached for comment.
"She's been a very involved precinct chair for the longest time, and once she gets behind her candidate, she's a hard worker," county Democratic Party Chairman Rick Melendrez said. "She's a pillar of the Democratic Party.
"This is a most unfortunate situation. ... She was elected by the Democrats of her precinct. At this time, there is no reason for her resignation. Patty Lee is innocent until proven otherwise."
During the early-voting period in the water improvement district's election, the district received about 50 suspicious applications for mail-in ballots that appeared to have been filled out by the same person.
The district's interim general manager, Jesus "Chuy" Reyes, said the county Elections Department found that four of those applications were in the names of people who had been removed from the voter rolls because they were dead.
Glancey could not say whether the charges against Piñon are related to those ballot applications or to others.
A previous Sheriff's Department investigation into alleged misconduct involving mail-in ballots sent to elderly voters ended in December, when an El Paso County grand jury declined to indict two people.
That 11-month investigation began after the El Paso Times reported that elderly voters at the Chelsea housing community said their primary election mail-in ballots were taken from them, marked by political operatives and mailed.
Recalling that investigation in the context of Tuesday's arrest, Melendrez said, "I am confident that in the upcoming Democratic primary there will be no problems like this, especially the harvesting of senior citizens' votes by paid election mercenaries. Let this be a warning."
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