Progreso voters desperate for solutions to alleged election fraud

PROGRESO — For years, Marilu Ybarra has been screaming for someone - anyone - to investigate the hundreds of election irregularities she claims to have documented in her small Mid-Valley community.

A filing cabinet she keeps in the backroom of Progreso Motors, an auto dealership on the south side of town, is stuffed with copies of voter rolls, faulty applications for mail-in ballots and affidavits from dozens of voters who allege they were intimidated, impersonated or impolitely turned away at the polls in recent election cycles.

And while the 55-year-old retiree proudly proclaims her opposition to the city's current political leadership, she says she would be happy with whoever won the next election as long as they were fairly elected.

"We have a lot of problems here in Progreso," she said. "We just need some help."

Ybarra - a staunch Democratic voter in one of the state's most consistently left-leaning regions - may finally have found a new ally in an unlikely source.

Last week, Texas' Senate Republicans pushed through a bill that would require all voters to provide photo identification or two alternate forms of ID before casting a ballot.

The proposal now stands poised for a contentious battle in the state House, where Democratic representatives are expected to argue that the proposed requirement would disenfranchise scores of elderly, minority and low-income voters who are less likely to have a state-issued driver's license.

But among voters in Progreso - a group largely comprised of the very people Democrats say they are trying to protect -overwhelming support has emerged for the more stringent identification rules.

"A card with my photo would be good," Ybarra said. "Everyone should be able to prove who they are before they vote."

VOTER FRAUD

The Rio Grande Valley has long had a reputation across the state for its hard-fought politics and persistent rumors of election fraud.

Former President Lyndon Baines Johnson was accused of stuffing ballot boxes here and in neighboring Jim Wells County to win his first election to the U.S. Senate in 1948.

More recently, a state district judge overturned a 2006 La Joya school board election after finding that illegal ballots were cast and election workers violated state laws at certain polling locations.

Every election cycle, allegations of fraud emerge in areas like the Delta, western Hidalgo County and the rural Mid-Valley. And in small cities where dueling political factions field candidates in slates, the losers often turn to claims of bought votes, threats and intimidation to justify calls for new elections.

Those challenges consistently run into the same problem, though, Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra said: Voter fraud is nearly impossible to prove.

Since losing a county ballot tampering case in 1978, Guerra has shied away from taking on many new cases involving election irregularities.

One exception - a series of indictments against nine people accused of trying to sway the 2005 McAllen mayoral race - has since fallen apart in court and resulted in one conviction.

Even if prosecutors can prove ballots were tampered with or improperly cast, it's difficult to determine who did the tampering and from where the suspicious votes came.

"To convince a jury these days, you need to almost have a videotape of someone voting illegally," the district attorney said.

That cautiousness has upset disgruntled voters in Progreso, Edcouch, Elsa and La Joya who say their elections are stolen year after year without any sign that state and local officials are paying attention.

POLITICAL EMPIRE

But the statewide Voter ID debate grew out of a specific form of election fraud - voters using another person's registration card to cast multiple ballots, vote outside their district or vote without U.S. citizenship.

Texas Democrats argue there have been few, if any, proven cases of voter impersonation and that the photo ID requirement is a solution to a made-up problem.

But in Progreso, Republicans think they may have found the evidence they need.

Ybarra says she can prove voter impersonation has happened in every election cycle in her small city for years.

One of the city's most prominent political families has used the tactic and various methods of voter intimidation for years to maintain its grip on Progreso's school board and municipal government, she alleges.

And whether well-earned or ill-gained, the Vela family's political clout is hard to ignore.

Progreso Mayor Omar Vela has held on to the city's top job since 2003, after he pleaded guilty to illegal voting and unlawfully assisting voters during the city's 2001 municipal election.

His brother Orlando serves as the mayor pro tem. Another Vela sibling, Jose Guadalupe Jr., helms the Progreso school district's board of trustees. His brother Michael serves as vice president.

Behind the small-town political empire, Vela family critics say, is patriarch Guadalupe Vela Sr., who has been accused in the past of paying people off and threatening their jobs to ensure his sons get re-elected.

Various members of the Vela family did not return calls for comment last week and have previously declined to comment on allegations of voter fraud in city and school elections.

‘COMPELLING' CASE

Progreso resident Eleazar Perez has joined critics like Ybarra in documenting what they see at the polls ever since he lost a May 2008 school board race.

More than 12 affidavits they collected as part of a bid to overturn the election later that year lay out a series of questionable scenarios.

In one, Andrea Peña, an undocumented immigrant, claims she was recruited by Omar Vela to vote for a slate of candidates supported by his family. He gave her someone else's voter registration card and told her poll workers would make sure she didn't have any problems, according to the document. When she arrived at the polling location, the election judge actually cast her ballot for her, she said.

Another woman, Jessica Rangel, alleges Guadalupe Vela Sr. offered her money in exchange for her vote and tried to convince her to recruit a friend to vote with a different person's registration card.

The family offered numerous times to help her get traffic tickets thrown out if she voted their way, her affidavit says.

"They stated that they had people that worked the election on their side," the document states. "I guess they thought I would help them, since I had helped them in past elections by recruiting people and giving them money for their votes."

A state district judge threw out Perez's election challenge based on these claims in July, finding no evidence the alleged conspiracy would have affected the outcome of the election.

But documents obtained by The Monitor suggest further irregularities emerged in the city's November municipal elections.

Dozens of applications for absentee voting request that mail-in ballots be sent to addresses within Progreso, even though the forms clearly state the ballots must be sent to an out-of-county address.

Several more appear to be filled out in the same handwriting.

And in one case, 12 separate absentee applications - all for people with different last names - ask for ballots to be sent to the same address in San Antonio.

It remains unclear whether these mail-in requests were approved by city election officials, whether the applicants ever cast a ballot and who they may have voted for. But dozens of voters interviewed on that November election night claimed they had been turned away and told they had already voted.

The Texas secretary of state's office, which oversees voting, called their allegations "compelling," and the state attorney general's office is currently investigating allegations from both the May and November elections.

For Perez, though, the evidence clearly points to fraud. He ran in both the May and November 2008 elections - first as a school board candidate and then for mayor - and lost both times. His brother is now running for the school board against a Vela-backed candidate.

"If the city runs the election, we're going to lose again," Perez said. "Not lose. They're going to take it."

REFORM

While Perez feels more stringent voter identification requirements would restore some confidence at the polls, there are other issues left unaddressed by the proposed Voter ID legislation.

Additional affidavits claim the Vela family pressured school and government employees to vote for them by threatening their jobs. Other affidavits come from voters who say they were paid to support certain candidates, mirroring similar claims in recent elections in cities such as Edcouch, Elsa and La Joya.

What these cities share, said state Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, is an economy based almost entirely on local government jobs. In Progreso, the Delta and western Hidalgo County, the school district and municipal offices provide employment for the majority of voters.

And until those regions can attract more robust business development, incumbent politicians will continue to hold undue sway over their electorate, said Peña, who has spoken out against Voter ID legislation and serves as the vice chair of the Texas House Elections Committee. Reform must take a more nuanced approach, he said.

He urges his colleagues to tighten up requirements for early and absentee voting, consider placing photos on voter registration cards and pass laws that would diminish the role of politiqueras, campaign workers who are paid to get out the vote but who have found themselves at the center of several recent ballot tampering cases.

"If you're going to remove a cancer, you don't use an axe," he said. "You use a scalpel."

Guerra, the district attorney, urges a more drastic change: Bar local governments from running their own elections.

"No municipality or agency that's having an election should be conducting it on their own," he said. "Those elections should be conducted by an outside, independent agency - like a county elections department."

Hidalgo County began managing elections in the Edcouch-Elsa region in November, and the school district race that month resulted in a shift in power on the board.

In recent cycles, the elections office has also begun administering polling in alleged voter fraud hotbeds such as the La Joya school district. But in each case, the county can only take over at the request of a municipality or school board.

The Progreso school district is once again scheduled to run its own upcoming board election in May.

And as long as the city refuses to cede control over the ballot box, Progreso resident Tomas Fonseca, 55, won't be able trust the results.

"I love this little town," he said. "But we have a lot of election problems. We need help."

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

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RECENT VOTER FRAUD CASES

>> PROGRESO, NOVEMBER 2008: Several voters claim they were turned away at the polls during the city-run municipal election by workers who claimed they already voted or did not live within precinct boundaries. Others allege they saw outside voters and illegal immigrants at the polls. The Texas Attorney General's Office is investigating the claims.

>> PROGRESO, MAY 2008: More than a dozen voters and election workers file sworn affidavits saying they were paid to vote, voted under someone else's name or witnessed election staff harassing voters at the polls during the city's school board elections. An investigation into the allegations is ongoing.

>> LA JOYA, MAY 2007: A state district judge throws out the results of the May 2007 school board race after finding that illegal votes were counted and that election workers at a Palmview polling station acted inappropriately.

>> STARR COUNTY, MAY 2006: Four Starr and Hidalgo county operatives are indicted on voter fraud charges in connection with an alleged scheme to submit mail-in ballots for people who did not exist in the county treasurer and district clerk races. The case has yet to go to trial.

>> McALLEN, MAY 2005: Nine people are indicted following a nearly six-month grand jury investigation into complaints that politiqueras, or paid political operatives, disenfranchised elderly voters. Charges against all but one person are later dropped.

>> EDCOUCH-ELSA, MAY 2002: An Hidalgo County grand jury indicts four Delta residents and former Elsa Mayor Gregorio Madrigal on charges of tampering with mail-in ballots in the 2002 primary and the 2001 school board elections. Madrigal and three others plead guilty. Charges against the fourth are later dismissed.

>> PROGRESO, NOVEMBER 2001: Two city officials, a clerk and a politically active resident plead guilty to charges of illegally voting, tampering with government records and providing unlawful assistance to voters. Among them is current Mayor Omar Vela, who is sentenced to two years probation and allowed to keep his elected office.

COMMON TYPES OF VOTER FRAUD

>> PAID VOTES: Voters in small-town races often allege that their political adversaries pay indifferent voters in money and sometimes drugs to cast ballots for a particular candidate.

>> VOTER INTIMIDATION: Elected officials and their supporters use their control over government and municipal jobs to pressure current employees to vote for the status quo. In a related tactic, sometimes jobs are offered in exchange for votes. Several former Edcouch-Elsa school district employees laid off during recent budget cuts claimed they got their unskilled jobs by supporting particular candidates.

>> MAIL-IN FRAUD: Ballots are requested in the names of people who do not actually cast the votes. In another form, election workers tamper with mail-in ballots upon receiving them.

>> POLITIQUERAS: These paid political operatives who are ostensibly hired by campaigns to get out the vote and assist in bringing the elderly to the polls often come under suspicion of improperly influencing how they vote.

>> VOTER IMPERSONATION: A ballot is cast under someone else's name - either by filing a forged mail-in ballot or showing up at the polls and using someone else's voter registration card. This is the type of fraud that Voter ID legislation would address.