Another Ballot Trafficking Scheme Uncovered in Texas

This is all beginning to look a little familiar.  After the RNLA highlighted two different ballot trafficking rings in Arizona and in Philadelphia earlier this month––both of which led to guilty pleas by the perpetrators–– another was recently uncovered by law enforcement in Texas.  On Friday, June 17, one woman in Texas pleaded guilty to 26 felony counts of voter fraud following the discovery of a ballot trafficking scheme she was operating.  

Monica Mendez operated a vote trafficking scheme that attempted to influence the results of a local utiliity board election.  She ran the operation on behalf of a subsidized housing corporation that was looking to influence the election to benefit a particular candidate.  According to a recent press release from the office of the Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, her guilty plea includes 26 felony counts, 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."

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident for Texas.  Paxton has found and convicted multiple instances of voter fraud due to ballot harvesting since the formation of his Election Integrity Unit.  Almost one year ago, the Attorney General of the Lone Star state announced that over 500 election fraud cases were pending in court.  Voter fraud cases have been taken more seriously in Texas after Governor Greg Abbott signed S.B. 1, an effective election integrity package, into law. 

The new law has helped law enforcement prosecute numerous voter fraud cases and safeguard election integrity.  Despite the bill increasing access to voting while cracking down on opportunities for fraud, the Left has incessantly criticized the new rules from their inception.  When Governor Abbott initially signed the bill into law, the Texas Democrats responded with a joint statement calling the bill "racist" and "anti-democrac[tic]."  The fabricated uproar from Democrats eventually led to the Biden Administration initiating a suit against Texas over the law in September of last year.  The District Court is set to review the case following the 2022 election.

It appears ballot trafficking is much more prevalent than Democrats are willing to admit, especially as this case in Texas marks the third guilty plea of a political operative running ballot trafficking scheme this month.  It's clear that strong election integrity laws are vital to expose and stop this kind of fraud.