Ciro(L) and Henry(R)
Posted on 06/23/2004 4:30:12 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
A 4th Court of Appeals' panel ruled today that a lower court erred by not allowing U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez to present evidence of illegal votes in the contentious Democratic primary won by Laredoan Henry Cuellar.
The scope of the ruling was not immediately clear, but representatives of both candidates said their attorneys received phone calls from the court and were told that the case was "reversed and remanded," sending it back to the original trial court.
"We feel good about it," Rodriguez said from Washington. "We are elated. We just want to be sure the true winner of the 28th Congressional District is elected."
A Cuellar spokesman said they were notified but had not seen the ruling.
"Until our attorneys have seen it, we won’t know if it’s an inconsequential ruling or a substantial one," said T.J. Connolly, who was traveling with the candidate to San Antonio from Laredo.
The ruling, which was handed down two weeks after the three-judge panel heard oral arguments, keeps alive one of the longest Democratic primary battles in recent state history.
Rodriguez won the March 9 Democratic primary by 145 votes after the tally was delayed by a breakdown of counting equipment in Zapata County, one of Cuellar's bases of support.
Rodriguez's lead then evaporated into a 203-vote deficit when Cuellar called for a manual recount in all 11 counties of the 28th Congressional District.
That recount raised eyebrows because 115 more total votes were counted than were cast the day of the election.
Shortly after that recount, Rodriguez filed a lawsuit contesting the results. That effort led to a second recount of Webb County ballots, which dropped Cuellar's lead to 58 votes but kept him as the Democratic nominee.
It was during that case that Rodriguez attempted to raise the issue of possibly illegally cast ballots, but a visiting district court judge disallowed it, ruling that he did not raise the issue in his original lawsuit.
----------------jscastillo@express-news.net
FUGGEDDABATTIT !!!!!
That's the only shot we have in winning that seat, and it will only be for one term.
Say hello to the new trend.
What we need is such a high turnout that the Democrat fraud machine causes greater vote counts in precincts than are registered voters.
-PJ
Oh, and there weren't actually 115 additional voters, it was just that 26 hombres who actually voted in the first election, voted in recount using all the official matricula card identities they had on them. If was all above board, however, because all the matricula cards were actually issued by Mexican consular officials. Each cards clearly established that it was officially issued to the person whose picture and name were shown on the official card.
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