Posted on 12/27/2004 4:59:12 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
SCOTT REESE WILLEY The Progress
Karnes County attorney and rancher Eric Opiela said he has presented evidence to a special committee of state lawmakers on Friday showing that more than 1,700 fraudulent ballots were cast in the Nov. 2 general election in Jim Wells and Bee counties.
In addition, he added, a precinct by precinct mathematical analysis of the illegal votes show that when the fraudulent ballots are deducted from the vote totals, Opiela won the race for State Rep. District 35 by 110 votes.
District 35 includes Atascosa, Bee, Goliad, Jim Wells, Karnes, Live Oak and McMullen counties.
“The voters have spoken and we're going to make sure their voices are heard,” said Opiela, who lost the race to Democrat Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles by 849 votes, or less than one percent. “While Mrs. Toureilles would rather make this all go away, we will continue to fight for the voters of District 35, and do what is right.”
Toureilles said Opiela does not have a firm grasp of election law and has yet to prove his case has merit. “He’s wrong on the law. He’s wrong on the facts, and he has not stated a valid cause of action,” said Toureilles, an Alice attorney.
She said the master appointed to oversee the issue has ordered Opiela to submit another petition to explain why he believes the election results should be overturned. Opiela asked for a recount following the November general election. However, the recount did not change the outcome of the election.
Following the recount, Opiela filed an election challenge with the Texas Secretary of State’s office, alleging voting fraud in Bee and Jim Wells counties. The challenge was forwarded to the Texas House of Representatives, which decides such matters.
The House earlier this month appointed a special master and a select committee of lawmakers to oversee the challenge.
Opiela submitted a Contestant’s First Amended Petition in an Election Contest to the committee on Friday.
The petition includes what Opiela says is evidence of massive voting fraud in Bee and Jim Wells counties. According to Opiela, the evidence notes:
* 1,321 instances of unlawfully assisting an applicant voting by mail.
* 58 instances of unlawfully witnessing more than one application to vote by mail.
* 348 instances in which the signature on the application to vote by mail does not match the signature on the carrier envelope in which the mail-in ballot is returned.
* 97 ballots cast by voters whose names were not on a poll list.
According to Opiela’s investigation, a total of 1,026 fraudulent ballots were cast in Bee County and 1,313 in Jim Wells County for a total of 2,339 illegal ballots.
The Bee County Sheriff’s Department investigated allegations of voter fraud in connection with the November election. Investigators there turned over their evidence to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, which is conducting its own investigation.
Those investigations are not connected with Opiela’s investigation.
“Considering the overwhelming evidence of voter fraud in the only two counties carried by my opponent, and the possibility of criminal indictments, I am confident the (Select) Committee will follow the rule of law and declare the election void,” Opiela said.
Opiela noted that in the five counties of District 35 where voting fraud did not occur — Atascosa, Goliad, Karnes, Live Oak and McMullen — he won the race with over 60 percent of the vote.
In his petition, Opiela noted that in five of the 15 precincts in Bee County, the number of early ballots cast for Toureilles exactly matched the number of total illegal ballots, or came within three ballots of such number, and that in one precinct that reported no votes for Toureilles, no illegal ballots were discovered.
Also, he noted in his petition, in Precinct 4 in Jim Wells County, all of the unsigned ballots for Toureilles are from one numerical sequence in serial number and came from a single shrink-wrapped package containing 200 ballots.
“According to the Jim Wells County clerk, there were six total packages, and all of the unsigned ballots for (Toureilles) came from the third package,” Opiela said. Toureilles said Opiela does not fully understand the election code and that state law allows people to assist more than one voter.
She noted that Opiela is only alleging voter fraud in the two counties in which she won and is scrutinizing precincts with large numbers of Hispanic voters. “He is only targeting counties he lost and whose residents are predominately minority, predominately Hispanic,” she said.
Toureilles has filed a formal 15-page legal response to Opiela’s challenge .
She described Opiela’s election contest “frivolous,” “an insult to the voters of House District 35” and “a desperate act by a losing political candidate.” “We’re asking the House select committee reviewing this matter to see Eric’s partisan rancor for what it is and at the appropriate time move quickly to dismiss his groundless challenge,” she said.
The Secretary of State’s office and Texas House are not the only state bodies looking at possible voting irregularities in Bee County. On Tuesday, representatives of the Texas Attorney General’s Office visited Bee County. Sgt. Steve Linam of the Bee County Sheriff’s Office affirmed that Capt. Greg Lucas of the Texas Attorney General’s Office had interviewed him and picked up records of Linam’s investigations from the Nov. 2 election. These records included approximately 70 to 80 applications for mail-in ballots and Linam’s notes from a single vote cast by a deceased person.
Lucas also visited the Bee County Clerk’s office for similar records. Bee County Clerk Mirella Escamilla Davis said she was interviewed by Lucas and Sgt. Luis H. Laurel for approximately 20 minutes. Davis added the two men also briefly looked at voting records in her office. Toureilles has hired the Austin law firm Bickerstaff, Heath, Smiley, Pollan, Kever & McDaniel to represent her in the challenge process.
“They know the election code,” she said last week. “I’m not taking anything for granted.”
Toureilles said, “I fully expect to be the next state representative. I’m ready to get to work.”
Beeville Bee-Picayune staff writer Chuck Steward contributed to this report.
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Interesting....those counties in Texas are notorious for crooked, rigged elections...big time...by the RATS.
(sarcasm on) I'm sure all of the republican votes were due to the fact that we control the voting machines.
Jim Wells..... Isn't that one of LBJ's "favorite" counties that just happened to deliver (under a cloud) for JFK?
Hope this guy (Opiela) goes to the mat. The Dems keep contesting elections that were clear GOP wins (which is why their challenges never triumph), while we ignore things that were obviously stolen by the Dems. Maybe the worm is turning.
Of course it's racism to call the fraudulent "election" of an "hispanic", by criminal aliens and the dead, by its name.
But now she's already played the race card -- what's Toureilles got in the hole?
BUMPping
Hmmmm...Washington, the State is in the throes of similar stolen election problems...for our governership...and we ARE FIGHTING MAD!!!! The Repubs are NOT backing down! Maybe we got a trend here!!!
I hope the Pubbies hold strong in WA. That's the only thing that is going to stop the Dems from trying to overturn every election they don't win.
Oh yeah, I was supposed to have all types of federal attorneys an US Marshall resources available.
We used paper ballots marked only with pencils, with tear off numbered stubs corresponding to the number on the ballot that had to be signed. No private booths.
Clerks didn't even let the ballots out of their hands for black voters. They were told to mark the straight Democrat box, the ballot was turned over for the voter to sign the stub and the clerk tore off the stub and deposited the ballot and stub in the appropriate boxes.
Even that wasn't good enough in some counties.
In one East Texas county (where a U.S. Marshall wouldn't enter after dark) all the ballot boxes from swing precincts were taken to a JPs house after the polls were closed where the votes were erased and remarked.
I requested assistance from the high sheriff (Democrat) to get the ballot boxes taken to the courthouse. Very late over many coffees he gave me some good advice. He told me that change wouldn't be brought about by my law books or federal bureaucrats, but only by taking my fight directly to the people
Shortly thereafter Karl Rove moved to Texas.
A definite smoking gun! Classic symptoms: Close races, fraud ONLY in a very select democrat precincts in a democrat county with democrat election officials ... With "just enough" democrat vote fraud to win. No fraud, no irregularities, no problems in a republic district, in a republican county, and in republican precincts!
She (the democrat) noted that Opiela is only alleging voter fraud in the two counties in which she won and is scrutinizing precincts with large numbers of Hispanic voters. "He is only targeting counties he lost and whose residents are predominately minority, predominately Hispanic,” she said.
And the standard response: Claim racism. Don't deny the facts, attack the accuser.
I was thinkin' the same thing....a Johnson county...the sorry crooked politician....long dead and we're still working to rid our nation of all his shitty legislation.
Two lawyers - members of the Judicial Branch of Govt - running for office in the Legislative Branch of govt.
Is that NOT contrary to the Constitution of the United States' SEPARATION of POWERS ?
Funny how they cannot tell you what the meaning of the word 'IS' is, but they can re-interpret the English language where they are innocent of crimes. party not-withstanding, lawyers - judges - politicians ---- scum.
PING!
Too bad the Texas House Leadership chickened out and allowed Toureilles to stay in office. Now the mud is on their face as Toureilles' campaign workers are getting indicted on felony voter fraud charges! Kudos to Abbot and Opiela for shining some light on this!
Friday, June 3, 2005
Attorney General Abbott Obtains Voter Fraud Indictments In Two Counties
Hardeman County commissioner, Beeville woman indicted for mail-in ballot violations
AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today announced his office’s first indictments for alleged voter fraud in Texas, returned in separate cases by grand juries in Hardeman and Bee counties.
"My office takes seriously the one-person, one-vote philosophy that has been the backbone of this country throughout its history," said Attorney General Abbott. "When the activities of even one person would undermine the electoral process, we will hold that person accountable."
Hardeman County Precinct 1 Commissioner Johnny Akers, 58, was indicted late Thursday on six counts of election fraud in Quanah. The Texas Election Code violations involve alleged unlawful methods for returning completed ballots during early voting by mail. During the April 2004 primary runoff and November 2004 general elections, the indictment alleges, Akers personally handled or mailed ballots for six persons unrelated to him over several days, a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a jail term of up to six months and a fine of up to $2,000 on each count.
On May 27, Beeville resident Melva Kay Ponce, 53, was indicted in Bee County on a charge of illegal voting. She allegedly posed as her deceased mother during early mail-in voting in the November 2004 election. Illegal voting is a third-degree felony punishable by two to10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
Ponce mailed an application for a mail ballot to the Bee County Clerk’s office for her mother, Dominga Ponce, on Oct. 15, 2004, when her mother was still alive. Her mother died of natural causes on Oct. 20, and two days later the clerk’s office mailed a ballot addressed to Dominga Ponce. Despite her mother’s death, Melva Kay Ponce filled out the absentee ballot in her mother’s name. She then mailed the completed ballot back to the clerk.
The Bee County Voter Registrar, Andrea Gibbud, contacted the Bee County Sheriff’s Office about the suspicious ballot, knowing Ponce’s mother had died before the ballot could have been completed and returned.
The Attorney General’s Office investigated the allegations of election fraud at the request of the Texas Secretary of State’s Office.
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