What escaped my notice until now was the wording on the red neckband holding the two plasticized, laminated I.D. cards: "VOTE ERNIE 2010". I cropped the original picture and enlarged it just enough to make that readable. Of course, this should not be a surprise to those who have followed the escapades and statements of Mr. Hernandez. In 2003 he told the Brownsville Herald: "There is nothing illegal about paying people to solicit votes." As for Ms. Becerra, she was one of a select few wearing the official badge of the Erin H. Garcia campaign at the meet and greet. It should be noted that she also wears the I.D. tag for the "Honorable" Linda Salazar, currently Justice of the Peace, District 2-1.
Brownsville voters will have to decide if they want to continue to support candidates who use politiqueras. It helps to understand how politiqueras operate, how their influence taints an election. A two-time candidate for city office enlightened me: "They have friends throughout the city that they have used for many years. The politiquera performs simple acts of kindness, like bringing some sweet bread or making a social call from time to time. At election time the "friends" know what's expected and vote as directed. The politiquera knows roughly how much the votes are worth. They will not deliver more votes than they get paid for."
Local businessman Dino X. Chavez understands the problem, but states: " Jim, I am 110% against the use of politiqueras to illegally collect votes for a candidate! However, just to play the devil's advocate, what should an honest candidate do to have a chance in a close race when going against a candidate who c...hooses to use politiqueras to harvest votes?
Should they do like John Villarreal did and just hope for the best? Should they use their funds to hire private investigators to follow the opposition, or the opposition's contracted politiqueras? Should they file a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission? Should they file a suit alleging wrongdoing?
Candidates have been on the losing end of close races for decades because of the use of politiqueras! All of the above as been tried and been proven futile."
Mr. Chavez is right. Dishonesty has frequently been rewarded in our community. In the 2003 mayoral election during which Ernie Hernandez gave the quote above, there were three candidates. Henry Gonzalez and Hernandez openly used politiqueras. Robert Uresti did not, stating his opposition to the practice. Uresti finished third. Curiously though, the last runoff city commission election bucked this trend. If a disproportionate amount of mail-in votes indicate the use of politiqueras, winners John Villarreal and Estela Chavez prevailed despite not using them.
One thing the election office can do was mentioned by Kimberly Dale: "What the election office should do is have a signature expert match the signatures of the mail in votes." This sounds like a great idea, but Election Administrator Roger Ortiz has great difficulty simply counting the votes, let alone matching signatures on mail-ins.
Let's state the obvious: If a candidate uses nefarious means to get elected, will they serve us honestly?
Its simple, those that want mail in ballots ( because have to be out of town etc.) should go to the election office in person and vote there.
ReplyDeleteAdult Day care participants should go to the election office and vote there instead of the ballot being mailed to them and having someone else vote for them. If they can go to the adult day care center then they can go to the election office ( I am sure if it was a "dance" they would be there).
No more mail in ballots. Go in person to vote.
The politiqueras are nothing but low lifing women that abuse the elderly by stealing their vote. The Hernadez ought to be ashame of themselves for using such practices.
ReplyDeleteThe local and Federal goverment need to investigate this practice and jail these witches, they're detrimental to the electoral process.
ReplyDeleteThe suggestion about mail-in ballots is well taken. We do need to stop the practice of hiring politiqueras. When you have 4% participation of registered voters as we did in the last runoff election, it's obvious that confidence in the system has been lost.
ReplyDeleteJim
Jim,
ReplyDeleteYou say that John Villarreal did not use politiqueras. I do not know one way or another, so I'm not refuting what you say. But wasn't John Villarreal backed by some of the Hernandezes? If Hernandez has used politiqueras for his own benefit, wouldn't he have recruited them to help John's campaign? (to be clear, I'm not trying to besmirch John's candidacy. It's just a natural inference that could be raised).
I understand that the Hernandez's were and are family friends. John told us privately that he had been approached but refused the help of politiqueras. In the runoff election against Tony Zavaleta, John won by a substantial margin, but lost the mail-in vote to Zavaleta by 97-10. That is a good indication that he kept his word.
ReplyDeleteJim
Jim,
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing wrong with a candidate recruiting politiqueras to actively push their campaign. I don't see any difference between that act and what hundreds of free-will constituents do to promote their candidate of choice. I believe you, your wife, and many of us are guilty of actively campaigning for our preferred candidate by block-walking, sign-holding, phone-banking, blogging, and facebooking to push our belief upon others.
However, some politiqueras allegedly cross the line by performing one additional act that is widely known as vote harvesting. Vote harvesting is nothing more than the collection of mail-in votes from individuals who cannot make it in to the voting booth to vote on their own. This process opens the door to the potential for massive voter fraud.
In my opinion, legislation needs to be drafted to reform that singular act.
Moreover, the fact that some candidates hire politiqueras to publicize their names doesn't make them automatically guilty of doing something illegal or unethical. Please be consciencious that not all politiqueras are bad, and not all politicians that hire them are guilty of vote harvesting.
Dino
Dino,
ReplyDeleteThanks Dino. I will run that by some of those who are intimately familiar with the work of politiqueras and see if I need to adjust my thinking. Thanks again,
Jim
Dino, you sound like you have used politiqueras, the only persons that defend such practices, are the persons who support these unethical females.
ReplyDeleteNope .......I've never hired politiqueras, nor have I ever run for office of any kind.
ReplyDeleteHowever, my opinion is just that .....,,Indicting every single politiquera and every single politician who uses them to promote their name is akin to concluding all dogs are bad because some bite, or all people on welfare abuse the system. When, in fact, I've seen my share of harmless pups, and people on welfare who are forthright and honest.
.......just my observations.
Dino
Many politiqueras live off of social security. Some might live off of welfare or supplemental security income. They probably don't report their earnings or income to the government. They should as it would affect their government assistance. Some earn hundreds even thousands of dollars during campaign season. Why should taxpayers continue to fund the ones that do live off the government a full price when they are making money on the side? This is part of the culture of corruption.
ReplyDeleteThe signatures on the mail-in ballot carrier envelopes are checked against the signature on the application for a mail-in ballot. The checking is done by the mail ballot board. Poll watchers for the candidates are present, and can object to any ballot. Many a mail-in ballot has been thrown out because the signatures do not match. I have been there before, when several ballots all signed in the same ink and handwriting from one precinct were thrown out.
ReplyDelete