Progreso elections probe widens

PROGRESO — Further allegations of voter fraud have emerged in the city's municipal election earlier this month.

Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies on Wednesday impounded all ballots cast in the race after a woman claimed someone had voted using her name.

The woman was barred from voting on Election Day because poll data showed she had already sent in a mail-in ballot, Hidalgo County Elections Administrator Yvonne Ramón said.

"The lady insisted she had not voted," Ramón said. "When we compared the signature on the mail-in ballot to her signature on the provisional ballot she was given, they did not match."

Further investigation uncovered several other potential problems with the city's mail-in votes.

State law allows voters to cast ballots by mail only if they are disabled, are senior citizens or will be out of the county during the election.

But more than 30 ballots appear to have been mailed to addresses within the city limits to voters who do not meet the qualifications, Ramón said.

"If you don't meet those requirements, the mail-in ballot must be mailed out of the county," she said.

This latest investigation comes only a week after the Texas secretary of state's office initiated its own probe of the city's election based on several complaints heard on Election Day.

Several voters complained they were turned away from the polls by workers politically aligned with incumbent Mayor Omar Vela.

Poll workers countered by saying Vela's opposition sent illegal immigrants and out-of-precinct voters to try to cast ballots in the race.

Vela defeated challenger Eleazar Perez by a 200-vote margin Nov. 4. Progreso city officials, who ran the election, have not responded to repeated requests for comment since that day.

The Hidalgo County district attorney's office is expected to review the impounded ballots and could file criminal charges if it appears any election laws were violated.

"Anytime you deal with elections, you want to make sure that everything happened according to the law," said Murray Moore, an assistant district attorney who is heading up the local investigation. "This is a preliminary step to certify those elections."

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.