The convoy of rented vans appeared unannounced at the Santa Fe Adult Day Care facility on Tuesday and a politiquera announced that they were there to take the clients to vote.
No one in management – who had expressly banned the Hernandezes from campaigning or hauling their elderly to vote – was conveniently there at the time. The elderly were herded into the vans by the politiqueros working for Erin Hernandez Garcia and her mother Norma, wife of Cameron County Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez, notorious for "harvesting" the votes of the elderly and the infirm.
They drove the group to the main courthouse and gave them marked sample ballots indicating the three candidates they were to vote for: Erin Hernandez Garcia for J.P. 2-2, Carlos Masso for District Attorney, and Abel Gomez for Constable, Pct. 2
Although the woman does not suffer from an incapacity and is not disabled, the driver would not allow her to alight the vehicle and insisted she vote under his gaze. Instead, the elections judge gave the driver the required number of ballots for the elderly in the van and waited outside in the sidewalk in front of the elections office until they were filled out.
The woman said she filled in her vote and the driver took her ballot. Whether he included hers along with the rest is unknown.
For three days Norma Hernandez and her band of politiqueros and politiqueras have been driving vans full of elderly and the disabled from day care centers in town and herded them to early voting polling places where they assisted them to cast their votes – often under the disbelieving eyes of passersby, attorneys and other candidates – and in front of the nose of Cameron County Elections Administrator Roger Ortiz and polling-place election judges.
In some places, such as the Centro Comunitario in Cameron Park, an Hernandez campaign worker will drive the rented van up to the entrance of the building, keep his charges in the van and call out loud that he has brought them all in to vote for Erin, Masso and Gomez.
At the main courthouse and at the Cristo Rey Catholic Church, visitors to the courthouse watched on in amazement as some obviously disabled people stayed in the vans as the driver went in to have the poll workers bring out ballots and then he assisted them in darkening the ovals next to the candidates marked out in the sample ballots.
In many cases, the elderly, like the woman described above, were not allowed to get off the van even though they could walk unassisted.
"This is incredible," said a visitor to the main courthouse. "I have heard stories about this happening, but I would have never in my life believed that this could actually happen out in the open. These poor people couldn't even hold a pencil. They just did as they were told by the driver."
It's not like Ortiz didn't know. We know that he has received at least a half-dozen reports of these irregularities and outright voter abuse from these three sites, but they have continued nonetheless.
"The Hernandez people act like they own the county polling sites," said a resident living next to the Cristo Rey voting site. "I actually saw them standing next to the door at the polling site handing out marked sample ballots.Now he has told the local newspaper whose logo is only half a sun, that he had requested state inspectors to keep an eye on the "acrimonious" campaigner from both sides. This amounts to the same thing as locking the gate after the horses have left. For three days out of five, he has allowed the Hernandez to basically coerce, cajole and threaten their way to steal the election as he has stood watching idly by. And where are these inspectors? This morning (Thursday) they were nowhere to be seen. Was Roger merely buying time para taparle el ojo al macho?
At the main courthouse, on Tuesday, Norma Hernandez carried a case of water bottles to the elections office for the polling place workers. There, standing at the curb, she could be heard telling the elderly arriving in the vans to vote for her daughter Erin.
"We could hear her across the street," said a paralegal who works in one of the legal offices. "But she was too far away for anyone to take a photograph to prove it."
This type of brazen interference in the electoral process and blatant disregard for the law has happened right in front of the eyes of Ortiz and the election judges at the early voting polling places. Instead of calling attention to the perpetrators, they seem content to watch all this happen right before their eyes. Who can the other candidates call to report this besides Roger?"
The apparent disregard for observing the law and thumbing their noses at their opponents might be because Erin is the daughter of Commissioner Ernie Hernandez and Norma Hernandez is his wife. Ortiz, a county employee, must deal with him and has to count on him for support in his budget and even his employment. Those that have crossed him know that Ernie never forgets and will find a way to make them pay if he doesn't get his way. Wonder why Javier Hernandez and Ismael Tapia, both county employees, have not endorsed anyone in this race even though they have made it clear they support Begum? Ernie Hernandez's reach is that long.
Additionally, the election administrator's wife Elvira works under Cameron County District Clerk Aurora De La Garza and also comes under the commissioners court. District Attorney Armando Villalobos, who is supposed to be investigating the employment of Ernie Hernandez's brother-in-law Roberto Cadriel for being hired in violation of the county Civil Service policies, has so far shown little interest in prosecuting this brazen violation of election law.
Villalobos, of course, has problems of his own. He is under indictment for bribing and taking kickbacks in relation to the Abel Limas racketeering case.
"Who do you go to complain in this case?" asked a campaign worker for one of the opponents' campaign workers. "It's happening in plain sight and no one is moving a finger to put a stop to it. This election is being stolen right in front of everyone's eyes."
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