Texas Voter Fraud Investigation: Hundreds May Have Voted Improperly

An investigation into potential voter fraud in Texas indicates that several hundred Texans may have voted improperly.

The issue at hand revolves around a temporary ruling of an ongoing court battle in Texas that allows someone unable to acquire valid ID to sign an affidavit instead, thus allowing them to exercise their right to vote. However, it appears that hundreds of people may have abused the system, signing an affidavit instead of showing a valid ID which would be in their possession.

Texas boasts about having one of the more stringent sets of laws governing voter fraud, and there are seven valid forms of photo ID which can be used to vote, yet not everyone in possession of one of these forms chose to use it.

“The chief election officers in two of the state’s largest counties are now considering whether to refer cases to local prosecutors for potential perjury charges or violations of election law. Officials in many other areas say they will simply let the mistakes go, citing widespread confusion among poll workers and voters,” according to ABC 13.

Donald Trump has made numerous claims regarding voter fraud even since being elected, declaring he would have won the popular vote too if people had not fraudulently voted for his opponent, Hillary Clinton. He based the claim on the 3 to 5 million undocumented immigrants he believes are in the United States who voted for Hillary.

Worse yet for Texas, the reports of the significant amount of voter fraud comes shortly after a judge sentenced a Mexican women to eight years in jail and a $5,000 fine for voting illegally in two elections. Rosa Maria Ortega is likely to face deportation at the end of the sentence as well.

Ortega claimed confusion in the matter, since she, as a legal resident, has virtually all the same rights as an American citizen other than voting. Ortega’s lawyer claimed the woman was being made an example of due to the highly politicized nature of voter fraud after the presidential election.

At one point, Ortega was offered a deal by the attorney general’s office “to dismiss all charges against Ms. Ortega if she agreed to testify on voting procedures before the Texas Legislature. But the Tarrant County criminal district attorney, Sharen Wilson, vetoed that deal, he said, insisting on a trial that would showcase her office’s efforts to crack down on election fraud,” reports the New York Times.

However, considering the massive 800,000 voter lead Donald Trump had over Hillary Clinton in Texas during the presidential election, even if every single questionable affidavit was cast in Hillary Clinton’s favor, they would not have changed the outcome of the race in Texas.

Also in question is the harshness of the sentence. The New York Times also reported that “A woman in Brownsville, Tex., was placed on five years’ probation for casting five absentee ballots under different names in elections in 2012.” That is a significantly more clear cut case of intentionally trying to commit voter fraud than an individual simply trying to vote once on elections which affect the future of the country they reside in.

The question now remains as to what happens to the various individuals who violated voting law by signing affidavits instead of showing valid ID. Will they too be sentenced to multiple years in jail and have to pay a fine? Or will they be excused because they are citizens of the United States and their votes would not have had any effect on the final outcome of the election?

In a bit of a dark twist, Ortega was registered as a Republican, voting for Mitt Romney during that presidential election, as well as voting for Texas’ current attorney general, who is part of the group charging her with voting fraud.

So what are your thoughts on the voter fraud committed in Texas? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

[Featured Image by Erich Schlegel/Getty Images]