Posted on 05/12/2005 11:39:28 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
San Juan mayor’s victory upheld
SAN JUAN — Mayor-elect San Juanita Sanchez’s three-vote victory stood up in a recount Wednesday, but the city election will undergo further scrutiny when a county investigation into voter fraud begins later this week.
Hidalgo County Elections Administrator Teresa Navarro said she could go to a grand jury as early as next week, once she reviews election records to determine just how many people voted more than once in the city election.
On Monday two women admitted to having voted twice after being pressured to do so by politiqueras.
"It’s under review until next week. From there it could go to the grand jury and then it could be investigated by the District Attorney’s office," Navarro said.
"Depending on what we’re able to get, if we feel something was orchestrated we proceed with the case … a lot of the time a voter will say an election worker coerced them, but it depends on the individual."
Illegal voting is a Class A misdemeanor, carrying a possible $4,000 fine and one-year jail sentence, according to the Texas Election Code.
Suspicion first arose Monday morning when three uncounted ballots were found under a box in the vote counting room by City Secretary Vicki Ramirez. All three votes for mayor were cast for veteran City Commissioner Eleazar Romero. Two of the voters admitted they voted during the early voting period before being taken by the politiqueras to vote "curbside" Saturday.
Curbside voting allows and elderly or disabled voters to cast their ballot from a vehicle without having to enter a polling station. The election official outside — in this case Ramirez — is supposed to make sure the individual is in fact elderly or disabled and cross-reference their name against a voter list before allowing them to cast a ballot.
"From what I understand, that didn’t happen," Navarro said.
Ramirez declined to comment.
Romero said again he has no knowledge of any wrongdoing within his campaign.
"That’s the county’s deal, and I don’t really have anything to say about that," he said.
"I played no part in that. If something did take place, I had no knowledge of that."
Both Sanchez and Romero accompanied county election officials around the city’s polling stations Wednesday morning, as they checked the voting machine tallies against those recorded by city election officials. In tow were around 25 of Sanchez’s friends and family, who waited anxiously for word Monday’s election result would hold up.
After officials counted up the paper mail-in and curbside ballots, the final tally was announced as 1,126 to 1,123 in favor of Sanchez.
For Sanchez, who lost to outgoing Mayor Robert Loredo in 2003, the news ended a difficult few days in which she had to sit in on a meeting concerning the three uncounted votes only hours after the funeral of her father, who died in a household accident Friday.
"It was a sigh of relief in that I’m finally on the different end of this," Sanchez said.
"But I had faith. I’ve been through so much this week, with the passing of my father, it puts everything in perspective."
Romero said he would not contest the election result in court.
"I’m going to let this one go by; she won fairly," he said.
"I wish Ms. Sanchez all the luck in the world."
Sanchez will be sworn in at as mayor at a special meeting Tuesday evening. Asked if she expected any difficulties in serving alongside commissioners whom she has openly criticized for years, the 41-year-old attorney was optimistic.
"I’m anxious to get started and work with everyone who’s there," she said.
"If they’re willing to do the things they said they wanted to do for the city, which are a lot of the same things I want, then I think we can work together."
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James Osborne covers PSJA and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4428.
All the ultraliberal places continue to suffer from REAL vote fraud
Politiqueras Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
McAllen: Local poll watchers dispute absentee ballots
http://cf.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=7160&Section=Local
Hey, maybe we can use this to raise state revenue instead of the income payroll tax.
""I played no part in that. If something did take place, I had no knowledge of that.""
"They said it was me, but its not meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee."
" Yeah it looks like me, but its not meeeeeeeeeeeeeee."
"Yeah, I was there, but not that niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight"
" Everybody knows oral sex is not seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeex "
Jackie Mason on Bill Clinton
As they say here in south Texas just another day at the office.
I gather you've never heard of a border town called Alice Texas and how ballots "mysteriously" appeared to give LBJ his victory over Coke Stephenson.
I gather you don't know where Swinney Switch, Box 13, is??
You mean ol' Landslide Lyndon?
All of these "exceptions", like curb side voting, handicapped parking etc all lead to some type of fraud. There should be one rule for all.
Does that go for military too?
In S. Texas it ain't voter fraud unless the other guy wins with more dead voters than you were able to dig up.
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