300 ballots found in District 28 race; Cuellar in lead(Texas)

San Antonio Express-News ^ | 03/30/2004 | Rebeca Rodriguez

[SwinneySwitch]

More than 300 votes were discovered during a Zapata County recount in the District 28 congressional battle, giving Laredo's Henry Cuellar a slight lead over U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez.

The votes apparently came from one of the two early vote boxes, according to officials with the Zapata County Elections Department.

It was unclear this afternoon how large Cuellar's lead is.

The discovery of the missing votes is highly suspicious, according to Rodriguez.

“There's no doubt that there's some fraud going on, some illegal activities,” he said today.

Rodriguez is planning to file a lawsuit contesting the recount results, said his Austin-based attorney Buck Wood.

“I've been doing this for over 30 years and I've never seen 300 or so ballots appear suddenly,” said Wood, a former elections director for the Texas secretary of state's office.“To tell you that I'm suspicious and baffled is an understatement.”

Cuellar officials were not immediately available to comment today.Although Cuellar lives in Webb County, his mother lives in Zapata County.

The recount, which began Friday in Atascosa and Wilson counties, came after a hotly contested race in the battle for the seat, which represents 11 counties stretching from Hays in the north to Zapata in the south. Rodriguez, who led at the beginning of the recount by 145 votes, had increased his margin by five votes after recounts in five of the district's 11 counties.

Officials were conducting a recount in Webb County this afternoon and were scheduled to proceed with Bexar County and Hays County on Wednesday.

rrodriguez@express-news.net

[SwinneySwitch]

Verrryy interresstting!

[PetroniDE]

Texas Vote Fraud Ping....

[Galtoid]

NO party affiliation is mentioned. Who is the good guy?

[maro]

More boxes at the ready if needed....

[PetroniDE]

Democrat Primary --- Evil vs. Evil, IMHO.

[William McKinley]

Neither. They are both Democrats.

[Dog Gone]

“There's no doubt that there's some fraud going on, some illegal activities,” he said today.

Well, duh. It's a Rat primary, and we're talking about Zapata County. No law-abiding citizen lives there.

[Dog Gone]

Actually, Cuellar would be the preferable choice, since this is a safe Rat seat. Cuellar worked with Bush when Bush was Governor.

[myself6]

They are just practicing for the "big game" on NOV 7

[SwinneySwitch]

I know some Republicans who live there!

[Dog Gone]

I am shocked. They must be living under false identities with Kerry stickers on their car.

[VRWC_minion]

Exactly 300 votes ?

[The South Texan]

It appears the ghosts of LBJ have paid South Texas a visit once again.

Corruption, corruption, corruption. That's the bottom line.

[billorites]

Que sorpresa!

[SwinneySwitch]

Yep, and they're in alphabetical order, in the same hand writing and they're all dead too!/sarcasm

[Dog Gone]

Has The Duke of Duval been succeeded by a Duke of Zapata?

[deport]

“I've been doing this for over 30 years and I've never seen 300 or so ballots appear suddenly,” said Wood, a former elections director for the Texas secretary of state's office.“To tell you that I'm suspicious and baffled is an understatement.”

---

Guess Wood has never heard of Jim Wells County, Box 13 in Alice..... Seems there were some 203 ballots appeared on the amended return of which 201 were for LBJ to give him an 87 vote victory margin in the 1948 Senate race out of over a million votes cast. As Coke Stevenson put it 'I've been out stuffed'....

[VRWC_minion]

Yep, and they're in alphabetical order, in the same hand writing and they're all dead too!/sarcasm

Thanks for the extra information. I thought something was odd at first.

[Richard Kimball]

bump

[BluSky]

"They are just practicing for the "big game" on NOV 7"

Right you are. Just testing the 'recount' and 'challange' process.