A man is convicted for an illegal voting case from an election back in 2008. He served as an election judge. The alleged election fraud took place in Progreso, Texas.
Jorge Luis Martinez pleaded guilty to 6 misdemeanor counts of attempted illegal voting and was originally indicted back in 2009.
Much has happened in the 6 years since the case was filed, including the federal indictment and conviction of several of the town's political leaders.
Martinez's case foreshadowed what was to come and shows multiple kinds of fraud, usually involving mail-in ballots.
Election Fraud Attorney, Jerad Najvar, said mail-in ballots are “extremely vulnerable to fraud. There seems to be people in this area, in the Valley, that have figured out plenty of ways to defraud using mail-in ballots."
In this case, 22 mail-in ballots were requested for voters who said they were going to be out of town on Election Day. Those voters had to give out-of-county addresses to get the ballots. Those addresses turned out to be bogus.
“It appears from the grand jury testimony those ballots were never actually mailed to that address. It looks like they were just sent somewhere else, collected and then voted on those voters' behalf," said Najvar.
Only a fraction of the 22 were registered to vote in Hidalgo County. Some voters showed up at the polls, only to be told that a mail-in ballot had already been sent to them and been returned.
Mail-in ballots also went to ineligible voters, including convicted felons.
Attorneys fighting the fraud blame politicians.
Najvar said, "They think that they have the right to essentially choose their voters by manipulating these elections, instead of the voters choosing the candidates that are going to represent them."
Prosecutors pointed out that maybe 300 people voted in that election, which means it does not take many illegal votes to tip the balance.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
Technorati Tag in Del.icio.us 
No comments:
Post a Comment