There’s nothing unusual about a state lawmaker and a mayor being worried about turnout in a local election. But in Dallas, it’s not just low turnout that’s got two local leaders concerned. It’s the cause. Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and State Rep. Eric Johnson have sounded the alarm over potential voter fraud in West Dallas. Many people in that part of the city received mail-in ballots for the county’s May 6th election, even though they didn’t ask for them. In November, some voters from the same part of town were turned away at the polls because mail-in ballots had already been filed for them. Johnson is a Dallas Democrat from Texas’ 100th district, where much of this activity has taken place. He says he first started hearing about the issue a few weeks ago.
Johnson says what’s going on is form of elder abuse that often crops up in low turnout elections, where only a few dozen votes could affect the outcome.
“The way people do that is they look at a voter roll and they see who’s over 65,” Johnson says. “Those people who are over 65 in Texas are automatically entitled to an absentee ballot if they want one, so they request a ballot on behalf of these people and frankly, they’ll either steal them out of the mailbox or they’ll actually go to the door of a senior citizen, ask them if they could have that little green envelope that came in the mail and basically defraud them out of their vote.”
Johnson says he’d like to see the perpetrator of this voter fraud prosecuted, but in the meantime, he’s trying to get election officials to more closely monitor requests for mail-in ballots.
Full Article: Dallas Voter Fraud Targets Elderly Via Absentee Ballots | Texas Standard.