The Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, announced that Monica Mendez of Port Lavaca plead guilty to 26 felony counts of voter fraud, including three counts of illegal voting, eight counts of election fraud, seven counts of assisting a voter to submit a ballot by mail, and eight counts of unlawful possession of a mail ballot.
The charges against Mendez stemmed from a 2018 water board election in Bloomington, which is a small town about 100 miles south of Houston. At the time Mendez was working as a volunteer deputy registrar with the Victoria County elections office.
The investigation was sparked after authorities learned that 275 residents registered to vote using the same post office box address which was linked to a nonprofit.
According to AG Paxton, Mendez is the person responsible, committed voter fraud and attempted to change the outcome of an election,
“Mendez ran a vote-harvesting operation on behalf of a subsidized housing corporation in order to influence the outcome of a utility board election.”
Victoria County Elections Administrator Margetta Hill said that when the election officials learned that Mendez was being investigated, they would not allow her to volunteer,
“Once we get wind of something that’s not right, we have the right to revoke her certificate.”
In addition to her five years of deferred adjudication probation, Mendez was also fined $1,415 and sentenced to 80 hours of community service.
