6 people are charged in a Texas elections investigation involving 'vote harvesting'
Six people in a rural Texas county, including two City Council members and a school board trustee, have been indicted in a widening elections investigation led by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, bringing felony charges to a case that Latino rights activists have criticized as politically driven.
The top executive in Frio County, home to about 18,000 residents, a county elections worker and a local resident were also among those indicted on May 1, Paxton said Wednesday. The charges expand an investigation that included raids last year on the homes of Latino campaign volunteers near San Antonio, including an 87-year-old woman, although none of them have been indicted.
Most of the six are charged with what is known in Texas as vote harvesting, a felony that often involves payment for collecting and dropping off other people's absentee ballots. Several of the officials indicted in Frio County are accused of using Cash App to pay for vote harvesting services.
'The people of Texas deserve fair and honest elections, not backroom deals and political insiders rigging the system. Elected officials who think they can cheat to stay in power will be held accountable,' Paxton said in a statement.
The League of United Latin American Citizens last year called for a federal investigation into Texas authorities after its members' homes were raided. No charges have been filed against any targets of those searches, according to spokesperson David Cruz, and the organization said it had not made decisions on whether to represent those who were indicted.
Gabriel Rosales, the Texas director for LULAC, called the charges unsubstantiated.
'This is voter suppression 101,' he said. 'There's no vote harvesting going on. There's nobody creating these ballots. That's a lie.'
The vote harvesting charges are third-degree felonies and carry up to 10 years in prison. Those accused are Frio County Judge Rochelle Camacho, the county's top official; Pearsall City Council members Ramiro Trevino and Racheal Garza; Pearsall ISD Trustee Adriann Ramirez; and Frio County resident Rosa Rodriguez.
Another official, former Frio County Elections Administrator Carlos Segura, is charged with tampering with evidence.
'The only word I have right now is that it's ridiculous,' Segura said, and that he was advised by his lawyer not to speak further.
Camacho, Trevino, Garza and Ramirez did not immediately respond to phone calls or an email requesting comment. A number could not be found for Rodriguez.
The indictments were the latest development in an investigation that Paxton started after the 2020 election to root out voter fraud, which is rare and typically occurs in isolated instances. Texas has tightened its voter laws in recent years and increased penalties that Democrats and opponents say are attempts to suppress turnout among Black and Latino voters.
Investigators with the Texas Attorney General's Office were first told of allegations of vote harvesting by Mary Moore, who was Camacho's opponent in the March 2022 Democratic primary for county judge, according to search warrant affidavits.
Moore accused Camacho of hiring a woman who had been collecting mail ballots for candidates in Frio County for nearly three decades. Moore alleged that the woman charged candidates anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500 to collect mail ballots, applications for ballot by mail and to even drive people to vote curbside, according to the affidavit.
Investigators allege that the vote harvesting scheme targeted elderly people at a Pearsall subdivision. Camacho and Ramirez, who were identified in court documents as sisters, allegedly took part in an effort in October 2022 to gather mail-in ballots from residents there, according to the affidavit.
Investigators allege the woman who was Camacho's main vote harvester hid ballots underneath her shirt and used different vehicles 'to throw off investigators.'
Segura would provide the woman with information on when ballots were mailed and delivered, investigators allege.
A federal appeals court last year upheld the state's law that tightened voter restrictions and increased penalties for vote harvesting.
___
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
19 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Kidnapping warning for U.S. tourists traveling to summer hotspot
Americans are being warned to swipe left while in Mexico amid new warnings that kidnappers are using dating apps to lure their victims into deadly extortion schemes. The State Department issued the urgent warning after U.S citizens were kidnapped and held for ransom by people met through online matchmaking services. The victims, whose names have not been made public, were abducted in Puerto Vallarta, a popular tourist destination in the western state of Jalisco, and Nuevo Nayarit, a coastal city in the western state Nayarit, just eight miles north from Puerto Vallarta. 'Victims and their family members in the United States have at times been extorted for large sums of money to secure their release,' the U.S. Consulate General Guadalajara said in a statement. 'Please be aware that this type of violence is not limited to one geographic area.' American travelers are advised to meet their dates only in public places and to steer away from isolated areas, such as private homes or hotels, since those are places where crimes usually are carried out. 'Tell a friend or family member of your plans, including where you are going, details of the person you are meeting, and the app you used to meet them,' the security alert recommended. 'Trust your instincts. If something does not feel right, do not hesitate to remove yourself from a situation.' Texas-based security consultant Robert Almonte told that the dating app scam was part of a push to make more money. 'It doesn't surprise me that the Mexican cartels are involved in this latest scam, basically a ruse to get people to fall into their trap and then kidnap them and hold them for ransom,' he said. 'That doesn't surprise me at all. That's how the cartels operate. People need to understand that the Mexican cartels are not just about drugs, when they make money they involve activities other than drug trafficking, [they] involve human smuggling. But in this case here they are using dating apps to trap people.' Almonte echoed the State Department's warning that that Americans traveling to Mexico should steer clear of going on dating apps. 'I urge them to be very, very cautious. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of ways to meet people out there in Mexico and I would not use dating apps,' he said. The State Department advisory comes amid a move by the Department of Justice to extradite Aurora Phelps, 43, from Mexico to the U.S. to face charges from a dating app scam, including kidnapping resulting in death. The dual Mexican-American citizen allegedly lured much older men she met through online dating apps such as Bumble, Hinge, and Tinder and stole their money from July 1, 2021, to December 9, 2022, according to an indictment that was unsealed February 21. Phelps, who lived in Las Vegas but had a home in Guadalajara, was arrested by Mexican authorities in February. In November 2022, Phelps allegedly kidnapped a man who was in search of love. She somehow managed to push him on a wheelchair through the Mexico-United States border as her daughter watched. The sedated victim was taken to Mexico City, where he was found dead in a hotel, according to the indictment. In May 2022, she connected with another man in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara. The victim was reported missing and police found him dead in the bathroom of his residence. Phelps waited several days until she tried to use the man's bank accounts to allegedly purchase gold coins and mail them to her own home. It's not the first time the State Department has warned U.S. citizens about the dangers that come along with matching on an online dating app while vacationing outside the United States. In January 2024, the U.S. Embassy Bogota in Colombia issued a warning following the deaths of eight Americans in Medellin between November 1 and December 31, 2023. Minnesota-based comic, Tou Ger Xiong, was murdered in Medellin on December 11 after he was kidnapped and robbed after going on a date with a woman he had previously met online. On November 13, Texas resident Jeffrey Hutson, 55, was found dead in his hotel room with at least 20 stab wounds in his neck after he had returned to the suite with an 18-year-old woman he met on a dating app. The woman was arrested November 27 and charged with aggravated homicide. In a press release, U.S. Embassy Bogota said that the 'deaths appear to involve either involuntary drugging overdose or are suspected homicides'. While they were not related, the embassy found that 'several of the deaths point to possible drugging, robbery, and overdose, and several involve the use of online dating applications'. It suggested American visitors 'should strongly consider meeting only in public places and avoiding isolated locations, such as residences or hotel rooms,' places were crimes could be executed. The embassy advised Americans that if they chose 'to invite a person they met to a home or hotel, they speak to the 'attendant/concierge beforehand and establish a policy as to what information your new visitor should provide before being authorized entry (photo of identification, etc.) and what process should be followed when your visitor departs'.
Daily Mail
19 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Joe Biden's only hand-signed pardon during his final months in office
Joe Biden's only hand-signed pardon during his final months in office was also his most controversial - his son, Hunter. The bombshell comes as Donald Trump ordered a sweeping investigation into Biden's use of an autopen to sign a huge number of presidential documents. Trump alleges the widespread reliance on the device that replicates a person's signature concealed Biden's 'serious cognitive decline' and amounted to a 'dangerous and unprecedented conspiracy.' Biden, battling an aggressive form of prostate cancer and facing mounting questions about his mental acuity throughout his time in the White House, granted clemency to more than 1,500 individuals in his final weeks in office. Biden's administration touted the figure as the largest single-day act of clemency in US history. But according to documents reviewed by the Department of Justice and White House officials, virtually all of those pardons were signed using the autopen. The one glaring exception was Biden's controversial hand-signed pardon of his son Hunter, shielding him from prosecution for any federal crimes committed between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024. For months, Biden had assured Americans he would not interfere in his son's legal woes but in December 2024, after Hunter pleaded guilty to felony gun charges and faced additional federal tax violations , Biden suddenly reversed course. 'From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department's decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,' Biden said in an emotional address. 'There has been an effort to break Hunter - who has been five-and-a-half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they've tried to break me - and there's no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough. 'I hope Americans will understand why a father - and a president- would come to this decision.' Aside from three felony gun offenses, the first son was also charged with federal tax crimes over his alleged failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. Special Counsel David Weiss, who led the probe into Hunter, blasted Biden's pardon as an affront to justice. In a report, Weiss excoriated Biden's public statement dismissing the years-long investigation as 'selective' and 'infected by raw politics.' 'This statement is gratuitous and wrong,' Weiss wrote. 'Other presidents have pardoned family members, but none have used the occasion to malign public servants based solely on false accusations.' The pardon effectively ended Weiss's investigation, barring any further charges against Hunter Biden. Biden also issued pardons for his two brothers and his sister shortly before leaving office, hoping to shield them from potential prosecution under Trump, who had promised retribution during last year's campaign. Other pardon recipients included members of a congressional committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. Now back in the White House, Trump has seized on the controversy, ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Counsel David Warrington (pictured) to investigate Biden's use of the autopen. In a scathing memorandum, Trump stated: 'It has become increasingly apparent that former President Biden's aides abused the power of presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden's cognitive decline and assert Article II authority. 'This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history. The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden's signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts.' Trump's directive calls for a forensic review of every document signed during Biden's presidency. It includes everything from pardons, executive orders, judicial appointments and proclamations to determine which bore Biden's authentic signature and which were replicated by autopen. The autopen, though little-known to the public, has long been used by US presidents to manage the deluge of documents requiring a signature. The device can accurately replicate a signature, saving presidents precious time. The Justice Department, under Democratic and Republican administrations, has recognized the use of an autopen by presidents to sign legislation and issue pardons for decades - and even Trump himself acknowledges using it. 'Autopens to me are used when thousands of letters come in from young people all over the country and you want to get them back,' Trump said on Thursday. 'Biden's cognitive issues and apparent mental decline during his presidency were even 'worse' in private, and those closest to him 'tried to hide it' from the public,' Trump said in his statement. 'To do so, Biden's advisors during his years in office severely restricted his news conferences and media appearances, and they scripted his conversations with lawmakers, government officials, and donors, all to cover up his inability to discharge his duties.' Past presidents, including George W. Bush and Barack Obama, have employed the autopen in limited circumstances, such as signing routine letters or lower-level appointments. However, critics argue that Biden's reliance on the device was unprecedented. An exhaustive review by the Oversight Project found that nearly every document from Biden's presidency from 2021 to 2025 bore identical autopen signatures, except for the document announcing his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race. Biden's reliance on the autopen came as his public appearances diminished, with aides scripting his engagements, heavily curating his interactions with lawmakers, and significantly limiting press conferences. Behind the scenes, insiders claim Biden's inner circle - including family members - wielded disproportionate influence, raising fresh questions about who was truly making presidential decisions. Trump, while acknowledging he occasionally used the autopen himself , argues Biden's alleged overuse could nullify significant executive actions. 'Essentially, whoever used the autopen was the president,' Trump said during a press conference. 'That's wrong. It's illegal. It's so bad and it's so disrespectful to our country.' House Oversight Chairman James Comer has launched parallel inquiries, demanding testimony from Biden's former top aides including Mike Donilon, Anita Dunn, Ron Klain, Bruce Reed, and Steve Ricchetti , alleging they participated in a 'cover-up' of Biden's cognitive decline. Comer cited explosive allegations from CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson's book 'Original Sin,' which claimed 'five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.' The committee has also issued subpoenas for Biden's physician Kevin O'Connor and several White House aides who reportedly helped shield Biden's true condition from public view. Republicans argue that if Biden's aides, not Biden himself, made key decisions, it could throw into question the validity of major executive actions including the pardons of his siblings, other family members, and members of the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot. Biden has lashed back at the accusations. 'Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false,' Biden said in a statement. Biden's reliance on the autopen came as his public appearances diminished, with aides scripting his engagements, heavily curating his interactions with lawmakers, and significantly limiting press conferences. Behind the scenes, insiders claim Biden's inner circle - including family members - wielded disproportionate influence, raising fresh questions about who was truly making presidential decisions. He accused Trump and Congressional Republicans of creating a 'distraction' to divert attention from ongoing political battles, including a contentious tax bill moving through Congress. 'This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans,' Biden declared. 'They are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families.' In private, Biden's aides insist that autopen use was limited to routine matters, and that Biden personally reviewed major decisions. However, newly surfaced internal memos suggest that a handful of senior advisors controlled access to the president and directed autopen usage without always consulting him, raising further doubts about the authenticity of some presidential actions. The implications are enormous - if Trump's investigation finds that Biden's use of the autopen was improper, it could challenge the legitimacy of thousands of presidential decisions, from judicial appointments to sweeping regulatory changes. House Republicans are already signaling they may attempt to invalidate actions signed via autopen, raising constitutional questions that could land before the Supreme Court. 'The American people deserve to know who was really running the country,' Trump said. 'This scandal could be one of the greatest in American history.'
The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
News of Trump-Musk ceasefire saves Tesla shares from another nosedive after $99bn loss
Tesla shares are expected to rise by 5.7 per cent following a $99 billion hit due to a feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump. The electric vehicle manufacturer's share price dropped over 14 per cent after an argument between Musk and Trump, impacting Tesla's market capitalisation. A ceasefire between Musk and Trump is expected, with a meeting planned, leading to renewed investor interest in Tesla stock. The sell-off caused Tesla to lose its status as a $1 trillion company, and Musk′s networth decreased by approximately $34bn. Potential changes to tax incentives for EV purchases and threats to cancel government contracts with SpaceX could further negatively impact Tesla and Musk's other business interests.
