Will a cash reward induce South Texas citizens to report the voter fraud that is entrenched in their communities, and succeed where weak laws and penalties, and lax enforcement, have failed in deterring illegal vote harvesting? According to Citizens Against Voter Abuse (CAVA) President, Mary Helen Flores: “The pattern is for the politiqueras, which is a person paid by candidates, to go and specifically take votes from people, the mail in votes, they go and they pick up the mail in ballots from people who live in assisted living centers, the nursing homes. They take their ballots, fill them out for them and then mail it and those votes are not valid votes, they’re stealing votes and so it ruins the authenticity of all our elections,” says Flores. The watchdog group is asking residents to stand up and help put a stop to this illegal activity… A member of the group has put up a $5,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of any person committing voter fraud here in our county. “There is a lack of enforcement, a lack of redress from the state level on down with regards to how the mail in system works,” says Flores. CAVA isn’t the only group concerned with mail-in ballot fraud. Investigative journalists at Texas Watchdog have reported extensively on the persistent problem of vote harvesting, including a Dec 2010 story of politiquera Dora Gonzalez who confessed to illegally harvesting 100+ ballots on behalf of a Val Verde County Commissioner in the March 2010 Democrat primary. A judge ordered a new election, but Gonzalez wasn’t charged. Most perpetrators aren’t, as prosecutors say “the penalties are so small they don’t deter the crime.” TW also interviewed politiquera Zaida Bueno about her vote harvesting activities, for which she and two others received “a year of probation, a 180-day suspended jail sentence, a $200 fine and 40 hours of community work.” Bueno claimed she didn’t know vote harvesting was illegal. “After all, it was the candidates themselves who were giving her the instructions, she said.” Along with minimal risk of punishment is the potential for big rewards. Starr County election administrator Rafael Montalvo testified to the state legislature’s Elections Committee in 2008 that sometimes politiqueras receive $10 per voter and can make good money during an election period – as much as $30,000 a season, by some estimates. So will the threat of reward-motivated informing to authorities deter these professional fraudsters? What about legislative action to deter mail-in ballot fraud? Again via TW, “Without a doubt we have a problem,” said state rep. Aaron Pena, whose district includes most of Hidalgo County in South Texas. Over his four victorious campaigns, he’s been approached by vote harvesters, or politiqueros, with promises of vote delivery. When he refused, he said he was told he was courting ‘political trouble’ and making himself a target.” But so far most Texas legislators have been hesitant to propose substantive changes to secure mail-in balloting. Perhaps in its next session, Texas will consider the recommendations of the American Civil Rights Union’s “Protect Your Vote!” project, as already implemented in Kansas’ SAFE Act, and pass legislation requiring signature verification and an acceptable proof of ID when voting by mail – just as soon as they finish litigating their in-person photo Voter ID law.
Disconcerting..since we have all been assured there is no such thing as voter fraud.
But I always wondered about those Dem political pieces that made their way into my father’s nursing home room.
voter fraud is sometimes difficult to detect according to my experience. As well city employees are often in cahoots in areas where there are a disproportionate number of certain voters-[i.e. whites]- in certain voter districts. I experienced voter fraud in 2010 rendering me unable to vote-as well this time around I’m already experiencing voter info confusion as my printout is not indicative of normal registrar activity still being not up to date (as I had changed my data over a year ago), back then I was denied, I had changed the data in the system more than a calendar month before the vote, however they changed my info putting me off the bus line in a differing district a day before the vote, I could not make it there but the next day I checked at a polling place proving they were lying. This time around they have put an old mailing adress on my printout and it is juxtaposed to what is registered in the system she says. They also told me that they had not recieved a confirmation from the post office that my voter registry ID card had [or hadnt] arrived at the post office, she also called a supervisor claiming something opposite of what she had originally told mthat I was also told misinformation at the voter office concerning the data in the system. I was also smugly told that if I had been in the mental healthcare facility the municipality could decide wheather or not I was fit to vote and I wouldnt know about it which is outrageous. I havent given my power of attorney to anyone and i was arrested and submitted to mhmra for trying to make a police report. As recently since I began to attempt to adress these voter issues, I have had several verbal attacks from mexicans telling me how to vote or else, i realise the voter registrar office personnel may be linked to this activity as acorn affiliates are ever present in texas and always abusing peoples rights to vote harvest by altering personal info and documentation. Texas and its recent decision to reshuffle voter districts only has made an excuse for the registrars to fein noncomplicity to fraud using this shuffle as an excuse. One of the office personnel actually had the nerve to tell me that I could not catch her as she would be leaving to go back to her city. I realise wheather or not Texas has switched and changed the vital statistics of people in the system still paves the way for fraudsters the way it is currently set up-as many persons whom were supposedly dead and on the rolls may have actually still be living persons-[such as me]-though i cannot tell whether or not this could be true unless election day raises problems for me. I think they are waiting to see whether or not i will invest in double checking before voting day before gambling with stealing my vote, prior to all this I had suffered ID and personal info thefts. In Texas the homeless,petty incarceration releases, and the infermed are targeted
No such thing as voter fraud? Have a look at this!
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/11/03/breaking_naacp_takes_over_polling_station_advocates_for_president_obama_at_houston_polling_location