BECERRA POOH POOHS PENA'S CRY OF FRAUD, CALLS HIM "LLORON"

By Juan Montoya

 From her red beach chair in front of the Cameron County Courthouse during the final day of early voting for the port and college elections Tuesday, 82-year-old Herminia Becerra's eyes twinkled as she asked "Que dice el lloron?"
She was referring to Ruben Peña, a former Harlingen attorney since moved to Brownsville and of his bid to overturn the election for county commissioner of precinct 2 which he lost by 49 votes in a runoff against former Brownsville city commissioner Ernie Hernandez.
Peña, 61, is contesting the election which he alleges was marred by fraudulent mail-in votes.
He claims that the largest number of mail-in ballot applications were turned in by Norma Hernandez (Ernie's wife), one Margarita Ozuna, and, you guessed it, Hermina Becerra.
And although the ballots have not been inspected, Peña asked for – and a judge granted him – an order to impound the ballots and to hold them in a secure area. Currently, they are in the custody of Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio.
Peña came in short by 49 votes in the runoff election, with 2,110 votes to Hernandez’s 2,159.
But his beef is with the mail-in ballot results. Hernandez received 240 of those votes compared to 34 for Peña, who tallied 1,863 votes on election day to Hernandez's 1,701.
By that measure, Hernandez would have lost to Peña by at about 5 percentage points – 52.2 to 47.7 percent. He says that the fact that Hernandez received so many mail-in ballots indicates to him that fraud took place.
In fact, he said that 101 more mail-in votes were received in the run-off between the two men than during the main primary election when six candidates were running.
"We suspect there may be irregularities," Peña told a visiting judge from Hidalgo County.
Becerra, from her beach chair in front of the courthouse, was defiant.
"We don’t defraud anyone," she said. "I've been helping people for the past 53 years and over that time I have made many good friends. People remember how you treat them. I think that people in La Paloma, Los Fresnos, Los Indios and San Benito remember how Mr. Pena treated them and they kicked him out in the election. Why is that my fault? He doesn't know the people of Precinct 2. But they know him well enough."
Becerra said that over the years she had done many favors for many people using the political connections she had nurtured for more than five decades.
"Just the other day one of my neighbors had her son jailed and a bail of more than $58,000 placed on him," she said. "He didn't kill or beat anyone, so I helped her and it got lowered to $20,000. They're poor people, they can't afford that kind of money or an expensive lawyer."
Becerra knows poverty firsthand.
As a single mother in the Las Prietas area on the poor side of the tracks in West Brownsville, she had to travel to "up north" to work in the fields with two daughters and a son in tow to make ends meet.
Afterwards, she saw that political involvement got things done and started helping local candidates get elected using her large network of friends and acquaintances throughout the rural areas like Villanueva, San Pedro, Olmito and West Brownsville in Precinct 2.
"I got involved with the college, the port, the city, and the school district," she recalled. "Everytime I needed support I would call on my old friends and they gave me their support. In Ernie's election, I think I might have gotten about 140 of them to help me. When they needed my help, I was there. When I called on them, they backed me up."
Now, as Peña seeks to overturn the election and questions the legality of the mail-in votes – including hers – Becerra laughs out loud and calls out loudly to voters walking toward the elections office during early voting: "Voten por los candidatos buenos. No le hagan caso a los llorones."
Then she calls out again as people walk toward the parking lot: "Saludenme al lloron."