GOD BLESS AMERICA
AND KEEP HER STRONG
DONATE TO FR NOW, PLEASE.
Posted on 04/08/2004 6:28:31 AM PDT by Theodore R.
Fraud allegations disputed
BY TRICIA CORTEZ Times staff writer
Webb County Commissioner Judith Gutierrez blasted the Ciro Rodriguez camp and the San Antonio Express-News Wednesday for their "continued allegations and inferences" that electoral fraud occurred in Webb and Zapata counties.
She was referring to the recount of ballots in the hotly contested race for Congressional District 28 involving Laredoan Henry Cuellar and incumbent Rodriguez of San Antonio.
"Enough is enough. If you have any evidence of fraud, prove it," Gutierrez said, referring to "one-sided news reports" and a particularly biting Thursday piece by Express-News columnist Ken Rodriguez.
"It is an injustice that has been done to our community with these attacks coming from San Antonio. This community should not take it from these people in San Antonio, and the San Antonio Express-News has done a good job of painting us in Webb County as committing fraud," Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez then pointed to the report of the ballot impoundment process in Webb County, compiled Wednesday by two equally angry elected officials: District Judge Elma Salinas Ender and Webb County Attorney Homero Ramirez.
In their summary, Salinas Ender and Ramirez say the ballots were placed in a holding cell next to the 49th and 341st district courts.
"The holding cells are the only areas that have concrete ceilings. A chain was wrapped around the locked detention cell. The lock with two keys, still in original wrapping, was handed over to a DPS (Department of Public Safety) lieutenant and a DPS sergeant," the summary states.
"The lock has keys that cannot be duplicated...The DPS people would open and close the cells every day and every night. They would personally verify the seals to check that the numbering was the same. In addition, a video documenting the procedure they used was made for my benefit since I signed the impounding order," Salinas Ender stated.
Gutierrez, the county commissioner, proceeded with her angry response to "the inferences put forth by the Express-News and the Ciro camp" that fraud occurred.
"I, as an elected official, want to say that it's a tremendous insult to all of us. They always go back to Lyndon B. Johnson and this infamous Box 13, as a way to say that someone stuffed the ballot boxes in Webb County and that fraud was committed. It's been the inference from the get-go," she said.
"And a representative from the Ciro campaign has had a lot to do with it," Gutierrez said, without naming names. "If Ciro hopes to represent Laredo, I hope he knows what he's doing and knows that he is not picking up any supporters."
Gutierrez then said she believes no electoral fraud was committed.
"Mistakes? Maybe. Fraud? No.," she said. "I believe Henry Cuellar won the election, and he needed a recount to get that win. Had he not come up with the money to pay for the recount, he would not have been able to get that win."
Cuellar paid nearly $14,000 for the recount, which will be refunded to him in full. When the outcome of an election is changed by the recount, the entire deposit is returned to the petitioner, according to the Texas Secretary of State's Website.
Cuellar initially lost the March 9 Democratic primary by 145 votes (out of more than 48,000 votes cast in the 11-county congressional district), but he emerged victorious by 203 votes after last week's ballot recount.
The stunning recount results from Webb and Zapata counties helped propel him to victory when the Zapata recount turned up 304 uncounted ballots in a ballot box, most of which went to Cuellar.
Furthermore, the Webb County recount showed 115 more ballots than those cast on Election Day. All 115 went to Cuellar, who also picked up an extra 62 more votes from the "undervote/overvote category."
While Cuellar picked up 177 extra votes in Webb, Rodriguez picked up none. Rodriguez is expected to file a lawsuit contesting the election by next Thursday, the deadline for filing an electoral contest, according to his Austin attorney Buck Wood.
Meanwhile, speculation and numerous questions have arisen over the more than 400 extra votes found during the recount tabulation in Webb and Zapata counties.
Webb County Democratic Chairman Roberto Balli sent a notarized affidavit April 1 to the Texas Democratic Party, requesting a recount of the recount in Webb County.
His request was denied the following afternoon, April 2, after the Cuellar camp, led by Laredo attorney Martha Cigarroa de Llano of the law firm Person, Whitworth, Borchers & Morales sent a letter that morning to the state party.
In the letter Cigarroa de Llano challenged Balli's affidavit and request.
"We believe that a second recount of all ballots cast in Webb County, Texas, would be illegal and contrary to the strict procedures provided in the Texas Election Code," Cigarroa de Llano wrote to state party chairman Charles Soechting.
In the letter, Cigarroa de Llano alleges that Soechting endorsed Rodriguez and writes, "we implore you as State Democratic Party Chair to preserve the integrity of the law by following the law."
The state party has subsequently said it would prefer that a recount of the recount be done under oath and under the eye of a presiding judge.
(Staff writer Tricia Cortez can be reached at 728-2568 or tricia@lmtonline.com.)
04/08/04
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