Dallas County Republican Party

The Dallas Morning News
March 10, 2010

Dallas County JP accuses victorious rival of mail-in ballot fraud; winner's manager blasts canvassing of residents

12:00 AM CST on Wednesday, March 10, 2010

By KEVIN KRAUSE / The Dallas Morning News kkrause@dallasnews.com

A small group of supporters of a Dallas County justice of the peace whose re-election bid was foiled by mail-in ballots demonstrated against voter fraud Tuesday outside where county commissioners held their weekly meeting.

Inside the county administration building, elections administrator Bruce Sherbet told commissioners that complaints about mail-in ballots are running at about the same rate as in the past. He said there's no reason to suspect widespread fraud during last week's primary elections.

Justice of the Peace Luis Sepulveda, whose precinct includes South Dallas, much of Oak Cliff and other parts of Dallas, has asked the Texas secretary of state to investigate vote fraud in the primary.

In Dallas County elections, there is a long tradition of mail-ballot fraud allegations. Fraud, however, is difficult to prove. And harvesting mail-in ballots has proved to be so effective, it's actually made the difference in some races.

Sepulveda has accused his Democratic opponent, Carlos Medrano, of influencing the outcome of the election with mail ballots.

Sepulveda lost to Medrano by 154 votes. He had 237 more election day votes than Medrano, but his opponent captured more than twice as many mail-in votes, according to the county elections office.

Sepulveda, who has offered a $500 reward for the conviction of election cheats, said he and his supporters have been going door to door this week to speak to voters who cast ballots by mail. Sepulveda said numerous people told him they did not request a ballot and did not vote but "somehow there were ballots cast in their name."

Outside the county administration building Tuesday, about a dozen Sepulveda supporters held signs calling Medrano a "ballot thief" while chanting, "No more voting fraud."

Texas law allows the elderly, disabled and others to cast ballots by mail if they are unable to travel to the polls on election day. And it's not against the law to help them, as long as campaign workers don't try to influence their vote.

"A suit will be filed this week by me, asking to overturn this election by clear and convincing evidence that voting irregularities materially affected the election results," Sepulveda wrote in his letter to the secretary of state.

Medrano was out of town and unavailable for comment. But his campaign manager, Anna Casey, said Sepulveda is upset because he lost the election.

"He got outworked this time around," Casey said. "He was up against a young man with a lot of enthusiasm."

Medrano, she said, knocked on more than 2,500 doors and had been campaigning for the past year. Casey also said Sepulveda's canvassing of households after the election amounts to voter intimidation.

She said that when a judge knocks on your door, asking whom you voted for and saying he's investigating fraud, most people aren't going to tell him they didn't vote for him.

"It's scary that he's doing that kind of thing," Casey said. "It's very inappropriate."

Sherbet told commissioners that so far, his office is only aware of about a half-dozen official complaints, which he says is normal for a primary election. He said the complaints were referred to the district attorney's office and the secretary of state's office.

County Judge Jim Foster, who also lost his re-election bid last week, asked Sherbet to appear and answer questions about vote fraud. Foster has said he's seen indications of it in the election.

Commissioner John Wiley Price dismissed such concerns, calling them sour grapes. Price said a half-dozen complaints out of more than 7,000 mail-in ballots cast during the election doesn't indicate fraud.

However, Sepulveda's campaign said it will have numerous signed affidavits from people proving that fraud took place.

It's not the first time the politically prominent Medrano family has been accused of vote fraud in Dallas County.

A 1988 investigation by The Dallas Morning News found that one in four votes cast in Robert Medrano's precinct in his Dallas school board race the previous year was fraudulent. In some cases, mail-in votes were cast in the names of people who said they never received ballots or cast them in the election. Robert Medrano is Carlos Medrano's uncle and Dallas City Council member Pauline Medrano's brother.

Medrano family members have aggressively sought out mail votes in past city and school district elections with great success. In Pauline Medrano's 2005 election to the city council, for example, mail-in ballots made the difference.

Sherbet said that in a primary with low turnout, a candidate can easily lose an election because of mail-in ballots.

"If you have a machine that can get it out, you will win," he said. "You can just lose in a heartbeat."