As the news of the criminal indictment of a local politiquera rippled across the Cameron County political landscape, federal agents were reported seeking information of mail-in voters whose votes may have been cast by someone other than themselves.
At least one involves a man who had died but whose vote was cast – even though it was rejected by election office personnel – by a politiquero working for Cameron County Precinct 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez. In fact, sources tell El Rrun-Rrun that the investigation by the combined State of Texas Attorney General's Office and federal agents seem to go back to the Hernandez-Ruben Pena electoion two years ago and fast forwarded to the recent Erin Hernandez Garcia-Yolanda Begum primary and runoff election last year.
If that is correct, then the politiqueros and politqueras who brazenly committed voter fraud before the eyes of countless witnesses may at this very moment be targeted by investigators.
Margarita Ozuna, the 62-year-old woman named in the March 20 indictment is but the first of many others who will be charged, according to our sources. Judging by some of the people investigators have interviewed and from whom they have elicited testimony, it might also involve Norma Hernandez, the Pct. 2 commissioner's wife, and Hernandez's political operative (politiquero) Amadeo Rodriguez Jr.
In one particular case dating back to the Hernandez-Pena race, the casting of two votes by one person in a three-voter household alerted authorities to the suspect mail-in votes cast by these two individuals working for Hernandez's candidacy, they say.
"Norma and Amadeo Rodriguez Jr. were involved in that one," said a woman who was present. "The woman's husband had just died and when they returned from the funeral, the widow was met by the two who had her sign one of the mail-in ballots that belonged to her daughter and took it along with the ballot of her late husband then mailed it in. What they didn't know was that her daughter had voted at the voting site at UTB-TSC where she works. When the double vote was detected, the voting violation was uncovered."
When we interviewed her, Maria Ybarra, elderly and disbaled, had to use a walker. She recalled how Amadeo Jr. befriended her husband at the place where both were using the dialysis machine.
"My husband (Martin Ybarra Jr.) met a young man (Amadeo Jr.) who was also taking dialysis treatments," she said. "After a while Amadeo Jr. told him he helped local politicos and that he could help him mail in his vote because of his disability. Because they were both taking the treatments together, he had gained my husband's confidence and he invited him to come to out our house."
That initial invitation led to a meeting at the couple's home where Amadeo Jr. and Norma Hernandez, Ernie Hernandez's wife, huddled with Ybarra and talked with him at length about supporting Ernie and how to go about applying for the mail-in ballots.By this time, the 62-year-old Ybarra, a Brownsville Public Utilities retiree, even though he might not have known it, was in his last days.
A few weeks before the March 2 Democratic primary election, the Ybarras (Martin, Maria and Dalia) received their mail-in ballots. By now, as in many local homes, the whole family was going to vote for the father's choice, in this case, Ernie Hernandez for commissioner of Cameron County Pct. 2.
Amadeo Jr. and Norma Hernandez (the candidate's wife) showed up at her home after they learned they had received the mail-in ballots and told the family they would mail in the ballots for them to save them the inconvenience of leaving their home.
"They were very helpful" recalls Maria. "In between the times that Amadeo first talked with my husband at the dialysis center, he told me that Norma would show up at the center with coffee and pan dulce for the people getting their treatments there."
After the March 2 election, no one candidate received the required 50 percent plus 1 vote necessary to win outright, and a runoff election was called 30 days after, on April 3, to determine the winner. The closest to the magic number were Peña and Hernandez, with Peña getting 2,076 to Ernie's 1,919, a slim 157 difference.
But it was during the runoff, that the full impact of the mail-in votes would manifest itself.
Unfortunately, on March 16, only two weeks after the primary, Martin Ybarra died. The family buried him on a Friday, and Amadeo Jr. appeared on their door the following Sunday. Maria said she had already filled out her mail-in ballot, but that those of her late husband and her daughter were still on the table. Her husband's was blank. Her daughter's only needed her signature.
"Amadeo Jr. said he had come to pay his condolences and to ask us if we needed help filling out our ballots," she recalled. "I had already filled out mine and he took it, but since my husband had just died, it was still on the table."
Her daughter's ballot, on the other hand, had been filled out for Hernandez, but was not signed. After Amadeo left, Maria looked in vain for her husband's ballot to no avail. Later, she learned from her niece that Amadeo Jr. had told her laughingly: "He voted from heaven."
"I knew then that he had taken it, filled it out, signed and mailed it himself," she said.
But the show wasn't over just yet.
A few days later, Norma Hernandez appeared at her door asking her if her daughter had mailed in her ballot yet. Maria said she told her that Delia was at work and that she had filled it out the ballot, but had not signed it.
"She told me that it didn't matter if I signed for her," Maria recalled.
After she signed the ballot for her daughter, she said Norma Hernandez took it and mailed it in for her.
Not long after the election, partially as a result of the recount and investigation that followed, Maria got repeated visits from State of Texas investigators who asked her who had signed the ballots. The woman told the investigators the truth, that she had lost her husband's ballot and that she had been told it was alright for her to sign her daughter's.
A check of the mail-in ballots for the runoff election indicate that Martin Ybarra Jr.'s mail-in ballot was not counted, but rather discarded for the runoff election. Amadeo Jr. was wrong. Ybarra had not been allowed to vote for Ernie Hernandez from heaven because his name showed up in a list of recently deceased persons. But the fact that the ballot had been cast for the dead man by the Hernandez politquero apparently has drawn the attention of federal investigators in the ongoing joint probe.
0 comments:
Post a Comment