DAY CARE ELDERLY TELL ALL: HOW THE HERNANDEZES AND THEIR POLITIQUEROS ARE STEALING THIS ELECTION

By Juan Montoya

At least two elderly women who were whisked away from their adult day care facilities and piled into rented vans have revealed how Norma Hernandez and her politiqueras forced them to sit in vans in front of the courthouse and directed them to vote for Erin Hernandez Garcia – her daughter – in the Justice of the Peace 2-2 runoff election.

Speaking with her opponent Yolanda Begum, the women recounted that the politiqueras arrived at their day care facilities and piled them in a rented van and then were not allowed to alight the vehicle while they filled in the ballots given to them by elections personnel who walked over to the van with the ballots even though they were obviously not incapacitated and could walk.

"Even my friend Margarita commented to me 'que mal este hueso,'" recounted a woman, when Norma Hernandez did not allow them to get off the van. "Margarita can walk. I can walk. I told her that before they used to let us off, but I guess now it's different. I even told her (Norma), 'What? Are you with the PRI who want to win at all costs?"

One woman identified Hernandez as having told them that she was the mother of one of the candidates.
"The one that was driving was dressed more or less (well)," recounted the woman. "She said she was a candidate's mother. The other (the politiquera) was dressed more or less like me. It looked like she cleaned houses."

[TAPE 1- click here]

Was it Norma?" asks the questioner. "The mother of the candidate?"
"No wonder, I told her, she was making the effort (to get her daughter elected). But what you are doing is not fair. It's getting to be like the PRI (in Mexico) who tell you where (to vote), but they gave me the (ballot) sheet and I told them I wanted to vote for Yolanda. She (Norma) said 'Bueno Ud haga como Ud. quiera, pero nada mas llene estas bolitas (shown on the marked sample ballot) Well, you do what you want, just fill in these ovals (shown on the pre-marked sample ballot for Erin, her daughter).'

[TAPE 2- click here]

"Oiga, estamos como en Matamoros?"
What happened with these women has been repeated throughout the length of the week-long early voting period, often right under the noses of and abetted by elections department director Roger Ortiz and his personnel who allowed the ballots to be handed to the politiqueros and politiqueras including Norma Hernandez herself who then was allowed to coach the captive elderly voters to fill in the ovals of the candidates they were supporting.
In no case were the politiqueros or politiqueras challenegd by elections personnel and asked whether the elderly in the vans could walk to the polling booths themselves.

[TAPE 3-click here]

The elderly women were even promsied a chicken plate that did not materialize.
"They promised us a plate about three times and told us it was being prepared, but it never appeared. I told them it wasn't important to me." she said.
 Some witnesses say some of the adult day care residents were mentally disabled who could not fill in the ballots and the politiqueros and politiqueras assisted them to fill in the ovals, casting votes for the candidates who they were supporting.
"Some of those poor people didn't even know who was running," said an observer who works in a legal office across the street. "Why was this allowed to happen?"