-Caveat Lector-
“Brokers” Exploit Absentee Voters - Elderly Are Top Targets for Fraud
Glenn R. Simpson and Even Perez
The Wall Street Journal
December 19, 2000
FORT STOCKTON, Texas -- When candidates need a little extra help
winning an election here, they reach out to Candida Rangel, a
72-year-old grandmother who is the acknowledged expert at
rustling up votes from elderly Hispanics in this dusty town.
Working for a candidate for district attorney in March, Ms.
Rangel collected about 240 absentee ballots from local senior
citizens, many of them illiterate Mexican immigrants who don't
speak English. One, 79-year-old Zacarias Leyva, says Ms.
Rangel showed up at his tiny house on an unmarked dirt road
shortly after his ballot arrived in the mail, offering to help
him fill it out -- with a vote for her employer.
"She told me the other guy was no good, and she wanted me to vote
for this other one," he recalls. After he agreed, "She filled
out the card, I signed it, and she took it," he says. Ms.
Rangel, who was paid $6 an hour by the candidate, denies she told
anybody how to vote; still, a local judge, after hearing sworn
testimony from Mr. Leyva and others, overturned the election
result.
Incidents such as these illustrate a little-publicized downside
to the nationwide surge in absentee voting. In an attempt to
increase voter participation, many states have liberalized
vote-by-mail laws. But they also have loosened already tenuous
safeguards against fraud. With old-style ballot-box stuffing
impractical these days, election-law experts say, the growth of
absentee voting has provided new opportunities to cheat. It has
also spawned a mini-industry of consultants who get out the
absentee vote, sometimes using questionable techniques. In some
parts of Texas, they are known as politiqueras, roughly
translated as vote brokers.
"There's not an experienced election official in Texas that will
tell you this is not a problem," says Austin attorney Randall
"Buck" Wood, a specialist in election contests who typically
represents Democrats. "This doesn't become an issue when a race
isn't close. But show me a close race, and I'll show you voter
fraud."
It's hardly limited to Texas. In recent years, absentee-ballot
fraud cases have cropped up from California to Florida to
Pennsylvania. According to government records, news accounts and
database searches, there have been at least two dozen major cases
in 17 states since the beginning of 1996.
Most involve allegations of undue influence -- a crime that is
particularly well-suited to voting by mail. It is illegal in
most states for campaign workers to come within 100 feet of a
polling place on Election Day, to prevent them from telling a
voter which candidate to choose. But it's much tougher to police
the law when a voter's home becomes the polling place and there
is no single Election Day, as is the case with voting by mail.
Since there is no booth to provide privacy, an unethical campaign
worker can also monitor the ballot-marking and ensure a sales
pitch isn't wasted.
Predictably, the elderly are prime targets, both because states
are more likely to give them mail-in voting privileges and
because they are viewed as easier to manipulate. "Just as they
are victims of a number of scams and con games, they can also
fall victim to voter fraud," says Hugh Cochran, a former Federal
Bureau of Investigation agent in Miami who now investigates
absentee fraud for private clients.
After a series of absentee-ballot frauds involving elderly voters
in Florida -- including a scandal in the 1997 Miami mayoral race
that led a judge to throw out 4,500 ballots and overturn the
election -- the state tightened its fraud controls. It is now
illegal for one person to sign as a witness on more than five
absentee ballots, unless the person is acting in an official
state capacity. The law also provides for representatives of the
secretary of state to supervise votes in nursing homes to ensure
that no one is coerced, and to prevent obviously mentally
incompetent people from voting.
Coercion isn't the only problem, though. This fall, a
Pittsburgh-area businessman pleaded guilty to charges of trying
to fix a district-attorney race by forging signatures on hundreds
of absentee ballots. He obtained the ballots simply by
requesting them in the names of registered voters, and asking
that they be mailed to the homes of several associates. He
received probation.
The spate of cases probably results from recently liberalized
vote-by-mail laws. Absentee voting began in the Civil War, when
Northern states enacted numerous measures to protect the rights
of soldiers at war. For more than a century, absentee voting was
largely a privilege of the military. In the late 1970s, states
began liberalizing their absentee-voting rules amid concerns
about low voter participation. That trend accelerated greatly in
the 1990s as worries about turnout heightened, although there is
little evidence that it has enhanced overall participation.
There are no national figures on absentee voting, but it is
believed to be growing rapidly. Oregon now conducts all-mail
elections, while about half of all voters in Washington state
vote by mail. In California, which has adopted "no-fault"
absentee voting -- meaning voters don't need an excuse to qualify
-- more than 25% of all votes were cast by mail this year.
That many more elections across the U.S. may be tainted as a
result is something of an open secret among voting officials.
"All of us know the absentee voting is our least well-protected
part of the election process," says Doug Lewis, executive
director of the Election Center, a Houston-based clearinghouse
for the National Association of State Election Directors.
Attempts to curb the abuses provoke sharp controversy laden with
racial and partisan overtones. Republicans have traditionally
been the most aggressive in courting the absentee vote --
appealing to military families and the affluent -- but in recent
years, Democrats have responded in kind, going after the elderly
and minority vote. When reform is debated, "it gets to be
bloody," says Mr. Lewis. "The Democrats are absolutely sure the
Republicans are trying to use this as a way to cut out voters,
and the Republicans are absolutely convinced that the Democrats
are traipsing people through the election system that ought not
to be there."
A Prime Battleground
With some of the most liberal voting laws in the country, Texas
has become a prime battleground for such wrangling. Anyone who
is infirm, over 65 or planning to be traveling on Election Day
can obtain a mail-in ballot -- leaving plenty of opportunity for
mischief on the part of professional vote collectors who operate
in towns and cities around the state.
In recent years, much of the controversy has centered on
politiqueras who mine the Hispanic communities across a wide
swath of Texas. The term originated in Brownsville, the state's
southernmost city, where the political strength of the
politiqueras is legendary.
"Everyone knows whoever controls the politiqueras will win the
election in this area," says businesswoman Alice Wilson, who
blames the brokers for her narrow loss last year in a City
Council race.
Ms. Wilson collected numerous affidavits alleging illegal
practices. During a visit by a politiquera, one woman stated,
"She tells me who to vote for … I give her the envelope without
closing it. My two children also vote, and they don't seal the
envelopes. They just sign the envelope." The affidavits were
forwarded to local prosecutors and the FBI, but no charges
resulted.
In Del Rio this November, Carl Pendergrass, a Republican,
campaigned hard for re-election as a state judge but initially
came up 21 votes short. Mr. Pendergrass is now gathering
evidence that his opponent, Democrat Martin Underwood, received
help from four local politiqueras. "There were some people whose
name I saw on the list as having voted by mail, and I approached
them, and they said they didn't even know whom they voted for,
because these ladies came by and took their ballots, and they
never saw how it was filled out," says Mr. Pendergrass, who
wound up winning the election by three votes after a recount.
Sal Yañez, a 52-year-old civil servant, says he was astonished to
learn that his 85-year-old aunt had voted for Mr. Underwood with
the help of a politiquera. Because his aunt can't read or write
in English or Spanish and only watches Mexican soap operas, he
says, "There was no way she would know how to vote without being
told how to vote."
'A Way of Life'
The election is being challenged in court, and voter affidavits
Mr. Pendergrass has collected have been provided to the FBI, but
he isn't optimistic the practice will be curbed. "It's been a
way of life in south Texas for years," he says. While the
politiqueras only control several hundred votes, "That's just
enough to turn the tide." Mr. Underwood didn't return calls
seeking comment.
Such frustrations have led Republicans to push for reforms. In
1997, then-Texas Secretary of State Tony Garza, a close ally of
Gov. George W. Bush, led a successful drive to tighten the
state's vote-by-mail procedures. "Scams designed to manipulate
the voting process by gaining access to mail-in ballots are
becoming a widespread problem in Texas," Mr. Garza's office
warned voters.
The final law elevated absentee-ballot fraud from a class-B to a
class-A misdemeanor, doubling the maximum penalty to a year in
prison. It also added a two-day delay before the names of people
planning to vote absentee become public, to make it more
difficult for political activists to find those people before
they vote. And it banned the practice of allowing absentee
ballots to be mailed to campaign offices, requiring that they go
to residences only and be mailed back through the Postal Service
or a commercial "common carrier." In the past, campaigns
collected stacks of ballots, distributed them to voters, and
sought to tell them how to vote, finally returning the ballots to
county officials en masse.
Mr. Bush, who has actively courted Hispanic voters himself,
stayed largely silent on the subject of fraud during the 1997
reform effort. But his administration's efforts to warn voters
about politiqueras and tighten the absentee-voting laws have led
some Democrats to cry foul. "It is really to me an intimidation
tactic," says [GOP] state Rep. Terri Hodge, an African-American
from Dallas, who adds: "It was quite surprising to me to learn of
the [GOP's] all-out effort in Florida to encourage people to vote
in the mail, because when I listen to my Republican colleagues in
Texas, they have real problems with it.
A spokesman for Gov. Bush responds: "This simple reform law ...
was passed with overwhelming support, and since 1997, the number
of Texans voting absentee has risen to record levels."
The reforms failed to solve the problem -- partly, say critics,
because federal and local law-enforcement agencies show little
interest in bringing election-fraud cases.
In Harris County the very next year, yet another gambit surfaced
when a Republican candidate for the state Legislature, Dwayne
Bohac, handed out preprinted absentee-ballot application forms
that contained his own post-office box, rather than the county
elections office, as a return address. That way, Mr. Bohac knew
who was planning to vote absentee and could potentially contact
them before they cast their ballots. Mr. Bohac, who couldn't be
reached for comment, lost to incumbent state Rep. Ken Yarbrough
by only about 150 votes. The incident prompted Mr. Yarbrough to
push through yet another reform in mail voting, prohibiting the
tactic used by Mr. Bohac. It became law last year.
Efforts by consultants and campaign workers to control the
absentee system proceed apace. "That's a big-time game here,"
says Tony Sirvello, chief elections officer for Harris County.
"In our primary election earlier this year, as much as 60% to 70%
of our incoming mail was absentee applications provided by
political parties, candidates and campaigns."
Voting From Space
The Legislature's record on absentee-ballot rules illustrates the
political tension between encouraging such voting and fighting
fraud. At the same time the Legislature was trying to clean up
fraud, it was passing legislation to allow space-shuttle
astronauts to vote absentee electronically from orbit. One
legislator was also proposing a new program to allow people to
vote by phone -- potentially an even more fraud-prone practice
than mail voting. And Republicans were engaged in a massive,
ultimately successful effort to protect the ability of the
state's huge military population -- unlike Hispanics, a GOP
constituency
-- to continue voting absentee while living outside the state or
even the country.
"We've tried very hard to take out a lot of the abuses," says
state Rep. Jerry Madden, a Republican. However, he says, "We
certainly don't want to deprive anybody of their right to vote,
and that's the problem. How do we do those things without
disenfranchising them?"
The controversy in Fort Stockton shows just how difficult it can
be to reconcile both goals. When a local prosecutor began
investigating Ms. Rangel, Hispanic leaders were quick to cry
racism -- a concern rooted in painful history. For decades, the
white establishment in Texas did intimidate poor Hispanics, and
only recently have Mexican-Americans in Fort Stockton -- and
across the state -- begun to accumulate political clout.
Candida Rangel was a victim of the old system. Interviewed in
the dilapidated one-story house her late husband built decades
ago, she recalls having to pay $1.75 at the courthouse every
election for the privilege of voting, a so-called poll tax later
abolished by constitutional amendment. It was her husband who
first got involved in politics, Ms. Rangel says, helping
Mexican-Americans to register and vote, many for the first time.
"My dad did this to help get Spanish people elected so we could
get ahead," says one of her six sons, Noel Rangel, a county
maintenance worker who lives next door to his mother.
Just Helping Friends?
Ms. Rangel, who is deeply religious and a regular churchgoer,
says she lives off Social Security and never took money to
collect ballots before this year. The people she helps to vote
are all friends and acquaintances in the community, she says,
adding that the work has always been a civic duty. "I never told
anyone how to vote," she insists. "I never even peeked to see
how they were voting."
"You see where we live," adds her son. "We're poor. That couch
is torn, that wall right there is falling down."
Pete Terrazas, a Fort Stockton businessman, says the probe of Ms.
Rangel was motivated by Anglos seeking to undermine Hispanic
political power. "They were real hot under the collar because
we've been kind of dominating elections here the last few years,"
he says. "We're used to being a minority here, but not anymore."
About 60% of Fort Stockton's 8,644 residents are Hispanic, while
35% are Anglos and 5% are black.
Thanks to the efforts of people such as Ms. Rangel, adds Mr.
Terrazas, Hispanics now dominate the City Council. "The whole
crux of the matter is we have 350 elderly Hispanic people who
have been voting for years. This is our bloc ... they turn every
election," he says. "Why was all this done? To break up a
voting bloc of 350 people."
Steve Spurgin, the district-attorney candidate, strikes the same
note. The criticism of Ms. Rangel comes from people "who would
just as soon live in the bad old days when Hispanics required
permission and instructions from their Anglo bosses before
casting a vote," he says. "I think it's racist, and it's wrong
to hammer on someone like Candida for using her influence with
her friends," he says, when wealthy Anglos do the same thing.
Yet the case was actually instigated by a liberal Democratic
lawyer named Frank Brown -- Mr. Spurgin's opponent in the
district-attorney contest -- and the judge found profuse evidence
that Ms. Rangel did more than help the downtrodden exercise
their franchise.
"To me, she's the poster grandmother of how this gets done," says
Mark Brown, who represented Frank Brown in court and is also his
brother. "She shows how out of control it quickly becomes."
At a June 15 court hearing to determine whether the election
should be invalidated, a small parade of voters who were helped
by Ms. Rangel took the witness stand. Typically, she would
remind elderly acquaintances to request absentee ballots from the
county clerk, and would encourage them to call her when the
ballots arrived so she could come to their home and help fill
them out.
Benigna Salgado said Ms. Rangel read her ballot for her, then
instructed her on whom to vote for. Ms. Salgado was unable to
recognize a signature on the ballot as her own. Asked if it was
her signature she replied, "No, I only write an 'X'." The vote
was ruled illegal.
"She was the one that arranged everything," voter Manuela
Fernandez said of Ms. Rangel. Ms. Fernandez, a diabetic with
poor eyesight, said Ms. Rangel opened her ballot, told her whom
to select, and marked her choices. Ms. Rangel plugged Mr.
Spurgin, handing Ms. Fernandez a business card from the Spurgin
campaign. "She told me that he was a good man," Ms. Fernandez
testified. The vote was ruled illegal. Noel Rangel says
witnesses such as Ms. Fernandez made their accounts up in an
effort to please prosecutors, but Ms. Fernandez gives the same
account in an interview at her home.
Ysidro Onsures, who also signs his name with an 'X,' testified he
also received a recommendation from Ms. Rangel, and took it.
"I'm going to find the ballot void," the judge ruled.
The Alzheimer's Patient
Another voter, Rita Gonzalez, recounted how a second politiquera
hired by Mr. Spurgin came to visit her and her husband, an
Alzheimer's patient who she said has lost the capacity to read
and write, "doesn't know how to do anything," and also "forgets
his name once in a while." With help from the politiquera, Ms.
Gonzalez filled out her ballot and that of her husband, voting
both for Mr. Spurgin, and then signed her husband's ballot at the
direction of the politiquera. The judge ruled Mr. Gonzalez's
vote illegal, and, based on the invalidated votes and other
irregularities, ordered a new election, which Mr. Brown won. A
local grand jury declined to indict either Ms. Rangel or the
other politiquera.
State Rep. Debra Danburg, a Democrat who is chairwoman of the
elections panel of the Texas Legislature, says such cases
strengthen her resolve to press for reforms -- even if many older
voters don't want it. "To me, this is victimizing the elderly,"
she says. "I wish the older citizens' lobby groups would see the
fraud I'm seeing and start reacting like victims of fraud."
Recent Absentee-Ballot Fraud Cases
Alabama
* In June, 11 people -including a sheriff, a judge, and a court
clerk- were indicted for buying absentee votes in 1998 with
liquor and cash. Several pleaded guilty.
* In February 1999, six people in Green County, near Birmingham,
pleaded guilty to absentee fraud.
Arkansas
* In December 1998, the election commission in Crittenden County
(West Memphis) requested an investigation by the FBI and state
prosecutors into irregularities in absentee ballots. The case is
still open.
California
* An investigation by prosecutors in the Los Angeles suburb of
Baldwin Park uncovered at least nine forged absentee-ballot
applications, but the case was dropped in October 1998 for lack
of evidence.
Connecticut
* In Hartford in 1996, six people including a state
representative were accused of 285 counts of absentee-ballot
fraud. All but one were convicted.
Florida
* Prosecutors are currently investigating a forged absentee
ballot cast in Escambia County during the November election after
it was allegedly stolen from the mail in Miami Beach.
* In 1997, Xavier Suarez was elected mayor of Miami with the help
of 56 absentee-ballot "vote brokers" who allegedly forged
ballots. More than 20 people were prosecuted, and the election
was thrown out.
Georgia
* In October, state prosecutors dropped an absentee-ballot fraud
probe in Marion County because witnesses wouldn't cooperate.
* In April 1999, five people in Douglas County were fined for
illegally handling absentee ballots.
* In 1997, 21 people in Dodge County were indicted on 124 counts
of absentee-ballot fraud, the biggest case ever.
Illinois
* In October, a candidate in Cicero was charged with improperly
assisting voters in filling out their absentee ballots during the
March primary. She pleaded not guilty.
* In September, the Alexander County clerk was indicted in Cairo
on 21 counts involving absentee-ballot forgery.
Indiana
* In January, the mayor and a city-council member in Martinsville
were charged with illegally collecting absentee ballots at
nursing homes. They pleaded guilty in June and were fined.
Kentucky
* In 1998 in Crawford County, eight people were charged with
mishandling absentee-ballots, including improperly filling them
out for senior citizens. Several were convicted.
Louisiana
* In October 1999, the mayor and sheriff of Jonesville and seven
others were indicted for illegally obtaining and casting absentee
ballots. They were acquitted at trial in March.
* Also in October 1999, three people in St. Helena Parish were
indicted for absentee-ballot fraud, while a fourth was indicted
in June 1999.
Michigan
* In August 1997, seven people were indicted on election-fraud
charges including absentee-ballot tampering. The cases haven't
been resolved.
Ohio
* In May, a city councilman in Fairfield was indicted for
mishandling absentee ballots in his race for office. In
September he pleaded guilty to all 58 counts and was sentenced to
prison for two years.
* In May 1997, a state representative in Athens County pleaded
guilty to
15 counts of tampering with absentee ballots.
New Mexico
* In June 1997, 19 residents of Rio Arriba County, including
several local officials, were arrested on election-fraud charges,
including ineligible absentee voting and false statements on
absentee ballots. Thirteen were convicted.
New York
* In September of last year, Buffalo-area state Rep. Larry Mack
was charged with tampering with applications for absentee ballots
and mishandling absentee ballots. He pleaded guilty in February
and received probation.
North Carolina
* A city councilman in Atlantic Beach was charged in January 1999
with illegally carrying five absentee ballots. He pleaded guilty
in August 1999.
Pennsylvania
* On Oct. 23, a Pittburgh-area businessman pleaded guilty to
forging signatures on hundreds of ballots in a 1998 election.
He received probation. A confederate was also convicted.
* In May 1999, former U.S. Rep. Austin Murphy was indicted on
eight counts alleging he and two associates improperly filled out
absentee ballots for elderly voters at a nursing home. He
pleaded guilty to one count a month later, and received
probation.
South Carolina
* In March, a former elections clerk pleaded guilty to forging
absentee ballots to throw a state House race.
Glenn R. Simpson and Evan Perez are staff reporters at The Wall
Street Journal .
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
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