Frio County public officials among six indicted after elections investigation, Paxton says

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Attorney General Ken Paxton indicted and arrested six people – including five public officials – for what his office described as a “vote harvesting scheme” in Frio County, a part of his yearslong election integrity investigation, his office announced Wednesday.

The Frio County judge and former county elections administrator, two Pearsall City Council members and one school board member, and one other person were each charged. Five of them 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.”

Audrey Gossett Louis, the district attorney for the region, said in a statement: “Violating the privacy or voting rights of our elderly or disabled community members will be met with zero tolerance.

The Texas Tribune reached out to the offices of the current public officials indicted.

The City of Pearsall said in a statement it is aware of the indictments, but “due to the sensitivity of this matter and in our efforts to not interfere with any existing or ongoing investigations, the City has no comment at this time.”

Camacho’s office and the Pearsall school board trustee Adriann Ramirez did not immediately return requests for comment.

Ballot collection, or “ballot harvesting,” a term used by many in the Republican Party, refers to 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 services,” – or the collection of ballots – in exchange for compensation, unless the person is employed as a caregiver for a voter who is eligible to vote by mail. That includes Texans who are 65 or older on Election Day or who are unable to vote in person due to illness or be away from their county throughout the entire election. 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 federal 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. The case remains under appeal.

KSAT, which obtained the search warrants, reported that the documents state that the officials either knowingly provided “vote harvesting services” for money, or, in the case of the former elections administrator, tampering with evidence in an attempt to hide it.

The limits on voter assistance in SB 1 are one of several pieces of the law. Some expand access — such as a provision that increases early voting hours in smaller, mostly Republican counties. But mostly, the law restricts how and when voters cast ballots. It specifically targets voting initiatives used by diverse, largely Democratic Harris County, the state’s most populous, by banning overnight early voting hours and drive-thru voting, which were popular among voters of color in 2020.

Former Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa described past investigations conducted under the law as politically motivated, and designed to intimidate voters. He said Republicans investigate alleged election fraud only in Latino and Democratic strongholds like the Rio Grande Valley.

Frio County, where Republican candidates have dominated in recent elections, has a population of about 18,000 and is southwest of San Antonio.

Disclosure: National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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