Hidalgo County DA: Convictions hard to get in voter fraud cases

Among as many as 17 people who have been indicted for voter fraud or vote tampering in Hidalgo County in the last decade, only one has served any jail time.

Seven women charged with tampering with mail-in ballots in 2005’s McAllen mayoral election have trial dates in the next several months, but Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra said he has little hope of a “slam-dunk” conviction for any of them.

Another six pleaded guilty or no contest to reduced charges — sometimes drastically reduced — in exchange for a fine and probation.

Two others had the charges against them dropped.

As authorities investigate and prosecute voter fraud cases stemming from elections in McAllen, the La Joya school district, Mercedes and Starr County, a look back demonstrates the difficulty of getting a conviction — and the vulnerability of the mail-in ballot system.

‘Burned too much’

Guerra said he has not chosen to make voter fraud cases a high priority.

Often, he explained, the cases involve too few votes to really swing an election. Casting 10 votes instead of one may not be fair, but it does not drastically affect most outcomes.

Violent crimes must occupy the majority of his prosecutors’ time, he said. Furthermore, investigating a crime such as voter fraud is typically onerous, and too often such “victimless” offenses are treated leniently by judges and juries.

“I have not gotten a hold of a case where I can hammer somebody and send them to prison,” Guerra said. “After being burned too much at the stove, the chef starts to shy away.”

Part of the problem is that voter fraud investigations touch several hands before they get to him, Guerra said. County and city elections officials, the state’s attorney general’s office and the Texas Rangers have gotten involved in or spurred past investigations.

A much-publicized indictment against McAllen political scion Othal E. Brand Jr., later dropped by Guerra, was handed down against Guerra’s wishes, he said.

“I felt that he should not be indicted Â… because the Ranger mishandled the investigation,” he said.

A Starr County indictment unsealed June 1 is to be handled by the state attorney general — outside the hands of local prosecutors. State prosecutors even have gone so far as to keep the case out of the Rio Grande Valley entirely, choosing to indict in Brooks County instead.

But so far, only one man has been arrested in the case, and he has yet to be arraigned. Attorney general spokesman Tom Kelley declined to comment further on efforts to find the remaining four named in the indictment.

Invisible votes

The charges in Starr County, as in all but two of the Hidalgo County cases examined by The Monitor, involve tampering with, stealing, altering or selling mail-in ballots.

Mail-in ballots allow homebound, disabled or out-of-town voters to remain politically active. But outside the elementary school gyms and community centers where voting is often held, there are few safeguards that can ensure that the correct person is voting.

Past cases have included allegations that elderly voters were intimidated into signing ballots filled out by others, or into signing blank ballots. The Starr County indictment alleges that operatives registered fake voters and then applied for those ballots to be sent to several locations in Hidalgo County.

Efforts in Austin to reform the state’s voter system this past legislative session focused on in-person voting: Legislators tightened identification requirements for voters at the polls.

But often, the fights over contested elections focus on mail-in ballots, particularly when the results of mail-ins vary widely from the in-person vote count.

Still, Guerra said, the numbers just are not there.

“There’s some cases that merit jail time. If I catch somebody voting false certificates, identity theft, those people should go to prison,” he said.

“If you affect the outcome of an election, you should go to jail,” he said.

But proving that, he maintains, can be nearly impossible.