DA VOTER-ABUSE PROBE IN HIDALGO COUNTY: CAN WE BE NEXT? PRETTY PLEASE WITH A POLITIQUERA ON TOP?

By Juan Montoya
If, as it has been said elsewhere, the stuff rolls downhill, will it just be a matter of time before we see out Cameron County District Attorney's Office roll up its collective sleeves and put the boys and girls in the department to finally squelch the rampant voter-abuse that has plagued our elections?
Or will it take someone from outside the jurisdiction finally deciding that they can't stand the stench emanating from the tail-end of the Rio Grande before something is finally done about it?
This comes about as a result of news emanating from the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office that it will assign two investigators to stop what it characterizes as rampant voter assistance in hotly-contested local elections.
The news article states that the investigators will work with a grand jury to determine whether campaigns are funding political operatives who assist dozens of voters, according to Hidalgo County DA Rene Guerra, who received approval from county commissioners this month to make the new hires.
Guerra said he’ll pursue criminal charges against the candidates and their campaign workers if they are assisting voters who don’t qualify for help under state law.
Now, that seems like an easy enough formula to attack the same scourge that has plagued our county, most recent manifestation of it during the runoff races of the Democratic Party on July 31. Before that, voter-fraud activists have documented blatant abuses by paid political activists (politiqueros and politiqueras) against elderly and mentally challenged voters during the walk-in early vote and mail-in balloting.
The law, the article goes n to say, allows voters to bring someone into the polls with them if they are physically disabled or illiterate, but critics claim the act is rife with abuse by political bosses seeking to control votes.
Although the statute stipulates who can request assistance and lays out criminal penalties for violators, elections workers are not allowed, in practice, to question whether the voter is actually disabled or can read and mark the ballot.
But the investigators can go after the candidates who fuel the practice by paying operatives to assist voters who don’t need it, putting a “whole cloud on the election,” Guerra said.
“I know some of (the voters) are being coerced. Others are being paid,” Guerra told the reporter for the McAllen Monitor.
"We’re going to take a strong look at the financial mechanisms of the campaign and who is doing what, especially in the hot spots that have been identified previously,” he said.
In the case of Cameron County, our DA Armando Villalobos is currently wounded and fighting off an indictment of his own. So far, during the budget hearings no proposals or budget requests have emanated from the second-floor bunker relating to any incentive to address the issue.
In fact, not even CNN can elicit comments on any matter of public interest, including some explanation of why the DA and his chief prosecutor Chuck Mattingly allowed convicted murderer Amit Livingston to walk out of the courtroom for a 60-day free pass before serving his 23-year sentence.
As you can see, there are more weighty matters on Mando's mind.
The political disincentive, of course, is always there. Mando hasn't said anything about the investigation into the reported illegal hiring of a Roberto Cadriel, brother-in-law of Pct. 2 commissioner Ernie Hernandez, as a security guard. There were reports that someone at the Human Resources Dept. had taken the Civil Service exam for him after he twice attempted to pass it and failed miserably. The third time his test was graded in the 90s. This was more than a year ago.
To make matters even more "curiouser and curiouser" is the fact that any request for extra help from Mando to investigate voter fraud would also come before Hernandez, who has a vote on county budget issues. Voter-fraud activists have documented in both taped testimony and written affidavits the fact that the campaign team helping his daughter Erin Hernandez Garcia come from 500 votes behind to win by 153 in the runoff committed obvious and blatant voter abuse in both the walk-in and mail-in voting. Among those named in the evidence they gathered is the commissioner's wife – and the candidate's mother – Norma Hernandez.
“When you have corrupt elections, the byproduct can be corrupt politicians,” said state Rep. Aaron Peña, who last year filed legislation aimed at curbing the proliferation of voter assistance.“It’s important that there be larger support for the effort because it’s a cancer eating away at our community.”
Estan oyendo inutiles Rep. Rene Oliveira and Sen, Eddie Lucio?
Guerra said he will support any efforts by state legislators to amend the statutes to give counties more control at curbing abuses. In the interim, he said his investigators can monitor elections where hundreds of people are being assisted.
“We’re not going to reduce anybody’s (voting) rights,” Guerra said. “But we will check all these people out.”
Come on on Mando. Half the work is done for you already. What have you got to lose?