CAVA, CITIZENS EYE MAIL-IN VOTE FRAUD IN SAN BENE

By Juan Montoya
A few years ago, some concerned citizens in San Benito began to notice that their city and school elections always seem to be determined for some candidates by the mail-in votes cast in their elections.
So they started documenting the volume of such votes coming in through the city secretary's office. In San Benito, that would be Lupita Passement, who's held that position for more than 35 years. After a while, a pattern emerged and they started detecting that – like in Brownsville – the majority of those votes were cast by elderly citizens or those in adult day care facilities.
"In 2010 there were some 400 mail-in votes coming out of San Benito," said Benito Cortez, a longtime Resaca City resident. "We wrote a letter to the city secretary to let her know that they were coming from a small number of people and we told her who they were."
That missive to Passement apparently had a chilling effect on the vote harvesters and the number of mail-in votes started to taper off. But some vote harvesters were not deterred and continued to gather the votes of the elderly, often without knowing who they had voted for.
"We would ask them if they had voted and they would say that someone had just had them sign the ballot and taken it away," Cortez said.
Concerned that the local school board and city elections were being manipulated through the votes, Cortez and a number of businessmen, professionals and clergy began to monitor the elctions and found that there were vcertain individuals who seemed to be actively seeking to gather the votes of the elderly in day cares centers or under their care.
They soon identified one such person who had a free hand in recruiting elderly voters in enough numbers to decide the outcome of those elections.
The subject came to a ahead in the May 10, 2014 city elections when city commissioner Pct. 2 candidate Shirley Vega lost to Rene Villafranco by six votes out of 2,296 cast. The 20 or so mail-in votes cast in that race, effect, decided the outcome of that election. The overwhelming beneficiary of the votes was Villafranco. (Click on graphic to enlarge)
And, Cortez and his group found, the persons assisting the majority of these voters was none other than someone named Encarnacion Lopez Jr. Lopez, they discovered, is a Licensed Master's Social Worker. Not only was he listed as the person assisting elderly voters, but in many cases, they were his clients, too.
"Many people had heard him say that if anyone wanted to be a winner in political races in the city or school board, that they should go to him and he could get them elected," Cortez said. "He had been doing it long enough to brag about it."
The group then decided to take action. But not having had experience in documenting mail-in vote fraud, they sought the advice of a local attorney who directed them to the Citizens Against Voter Abuse (CAVA) headed by Mary Helen Flores in Brownsville.
Under her guidance, they sought the documentation from Passement required to file a complaint with the Texas Secretary of State, the Texas Attorney General's Office and then, the State Department of State Health Services. Their complaint eventually made its way to the Texas State Board of Social Worker Examiners' Professional Licensing and Certification Unit.
According to the Social Worker Examiners Administrative Code, a social worker "shall not engage in activities that seek to primarily meet the social workers' personal needs or personal gain instead of the needs of the client.
And, besides getting his candidates a victory, did Lopez receive in return?
"He was appointed to important boards in the city such as those dealing with economic development and public housing," said Cortez. "He got to vote on a lot of important issues."
Lopez is currently listed only as a member of the City of San Benito Board of Adjustment and Appeals.
Nonetheless, his behavior with clients who are dependent on him for receiving his recommendations to receive health, housing or social services from the state places him at an advantage to harvest the votes of the elderly, many of whom do not dare deny him their ballots fearing a loss of some benefit, they said.
"Allegations contained are of a conduct nature and the exploitation of his clients data base for his own personal gain," the group wrote in their complaint. "Mr. Lopez has been doing this system of voter fraud for several years, however until recently he has boasted and bragged more of his ability to get anyone elected.
"There were several citizens that hear him publicly state that he could get anyone elected. In the past there were several hundreds that he used. Until recently the numbers have decreased because more people are aware of his method. This year (204), when his methods were discovered, he got some help from other people, but he provided the names (of the clients). This year in the city elections, his mail-in gave one candidate the win. While it was hard to interview all the mail-ins, the ones we did talk to don't remember why they signed or what they  signed."
In addition to the board of social work examiners, the group says that they have also filed with the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Office of Inspector General which investigated fraud and waste in the state's health provision system.
"We spoke to the FBI and they told us that since there was no federal question involved in the 2014 race, that the Texas Attorney General's Office would handle the complaint," Cortez said.
CAVA's Flores said that aside from the assistance the group is extending to San Benito, they are also working with citizens from Harlingen who have contacted them with similar problems with mail-in ballot voting fraud.
"This has gone on all over the Rio Grande Valley," Flores said. "We will assist anyone who has similar problems in their town."