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Attorney General Ken Paxton indicted six people – including five public officials – for an alleged ballot harvesting scheme in Frio County, a part of his yearslong election integrity investigation, his office announced Wednesday.
A Frio County judge and former county elections administrator, two Persall city council members and one school board member, and one alleged vote harvester were each charged. Five of the officials were arrested on May 2. Rochelle Camacho, the county judge, will be processed at a later date, according to a release from Paxton’s office.
“The people of Texas deserve fair and honest elections, not backroom deals and political insiders rigging the system,” Paxton wrote in a statement. “Elected officials who think they can cheat to stay in power will be held accountable. No one is above the law.”
“Ballot harvesting” is the language many in the Republican Party use to describe the process of designating someone else to return a voter’s ballot. It’s allowed under federal law, but some states have restrictions, such as not allowing the person collecting the ballots to be compensated, or not allowing them to collect more than a certain number of ballots according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Paxton brought the charges under Texas’ Senate Bill 1, passed in 2021, which makes it a third-degree felony for a person to knowingly provide or offer “vote harvesting service,” – or the collection of ballots – in exchange for compensation. Under the law, organizers of voter outreach groups and volunteers could spend up to 10 years in prison and be fined up to $10,000 for offering these services.
And while a U.S. District court ruling from September challenging the constitutionality of the law halted the state’s ability to investigate those cases, Paxton appealed that decision, which gave the state leeway to continue.
Former Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa described past investigations as politically motivated, and designed to intimidate voters. He said Republicans only investigate alleged election fraud in Latino and Democratic strongholds like the Rio Grande Valley.
Frio County has a population of about 18,000 and is southwest of San Antonio.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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