Both sides make new fraud claims in Weslaco election contest

Source: The Monitor, McAllen, TexasDec.迷你倉西貢 22--WESLACO -- New allegations surfaced last week in the battle over Weslaco's City Commission election.Letty Lopez, who lost the race for the District 5 seat to incumbent Lupe Rivera by only 16 votes, filed the election contest last month. It alleged that "obvious illegal registration" of voters secured the seat for Rivera and claimed at least 24 people voted in the district but did not live there, and said some 16 mail-in ballots had been improperly rejected by the Hidalgo County Election Ballot Board.On Wednesday, Rivera fired back with an answer that denied Lopez's allegations and also claimed voter fraud -- on her side."Contestee (Rivera) will show that several votes for Contestant (Lopez) were cast by individuals who were not eligible to vote in District 5 because they do not reside in District 5," the answer says. "Had the illegal votes for (Lopez) not been counted, a different and correct result would have been obtained in the election, creating a smaller number of total votes for (Lopez)."It also says mail-in votes for Rivera were improperly rejected by the Ballot Board and some mail-in votes for Lopez were counted that should have been rejected.Lopez amended her original lawsuit Wednesday as well, adding claims that many voters were influenced improperly by Hidalgo County Precinct 1 and Weslaco city employees.It alleges the precinct placed a sign saying who to vote for near a work time clock, a police officer drove voters to the polls and city employees were involved in creating a tabloid -- the controversial and mysterious "truth" publication -- to promote Rivera's slate.It also listed the names of 43 people who cast mail-in ballots that it says should not have been counted for various reasons."These pervasive illegalities in ballots voted by mail are the result of a concerted effort by Contestee Rivera's campaign to encourage voters to seek ballot by mail appli迷你倉將軍澳ations, some of which were fraudulently submitted on behalf of voters not eligible ... or even completing ballots without direction from the voters," the suit says."The ballot by mail scheme allowed the Rivera campaign to exercise undue influence on such voters in a manner that would not be possible, or at least would be harder to achieve, if the voter were to vote in person."Some 121 of 170 mail-in ballots cast were for Rivera.The allegations in Rivera's response were far less specific and his attorney, Gilberto Hinojosa, did not return repeated messages left over two weeks to respond to any aspects of the case. Rivera himself declined to comment on specific details of the litigation."There's no merit to this contest, lawsuit, and that's about as much as I can say," he said Thursday. "In my mind, the people have spoken."He did respond to the claims regarding his own family -- that his son, Lupe Rivera Jr. had voted from the family home despite not living there."My son, he was born here and, as he's moved, it is a mailing address," Rivera said. "He lives here off and on. Same with my daughter. They've lived here all their lives. Their address hasn't changed on their drivers licenses or voter registration. This is their home."Lopez's attorney Jerad Najvar acknowledged the murkiness of trying to prove residency and the difficulties that would likely come with both sides trying to challenge the true home of so many people."I think we'll establish that these people weren't residents, but you have to do the legwork, you have to get a lot of documents," he said. "There will be a lot more votes, I think, that will prove to be invalid. This was just the stuff that jumped out right away.A hearing Tuesday set the case to be heard in court Feb. 4.efindell@themonitor.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 The Monitor (McAllen, Texas) Visit The Monitor (McAllen, Texas) at .themonitor.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉尖沙咀