In rural South Texas, prosecutors have introduced ahead one of the vital important vote-harvesting circumstances in current state historical past.
On Could 1, 2025, a Frio County grand jury indicted six folks, together with a number of public officers, on felony election-fraud fees. The indictments, secured after a two-year investigation led by Texas Lawyer Common Ken Paxton’s workplace, expose an organized ballot-harvesting operation that allegedly influenced a number of native races in a closely Democrat area.
Amongst these charged have been Frio County Choose Rochelle Camacho, who faces three counts of vote harvesting; former Frio County Elections Administrator Carlos Segura, charged with tampering with bodily proof; Pearsall Metropolis Council members Ramiro Trevino and Racheal Garza; Pearsall ISD Trustee Adriann Ramirez, who’s Camacho’s sister; and Rosa Rodriguez, recognized as an alleged poll harvester.
State investigators say the scheme focused aged residents and people voting by mail, with ballots collected in violation of Texas election legislation. Beneath Texas’s 2021 election-integrity reforms, compensated poll assortment carries a penalty of as much as 10 years in jail and a $10,000 effective.
The arrests didn’t happen in isolation. In August 2024, Paxton’s Felony Investigations Division executed search warrants in Frio, Bexar, and Atascosa counties, seizing proof related to what the Lawyer Common’s workplace described as an “unlawful ballot-harvesting ring.”
The warrants have been the end result of years of complaints from native residents who claimed political operatives have been systematically amassing and manipulating mail-in ballots. Investigators consider the operation was linked to a political community that benefited a number of Democrat candidates in native races.
The investigation expanded in mid-2025. On June 30, 2025, a second grand jury returned indictments towards 9 further people, bringing the overall variety of defendants to fifteen. Among the many newly charged was former Texas Home candidate Cecilia Castellano, a Democrat, in addition to former Bexar County Democrat Social gathering Chair Juan Manuel Medina.
Different defendants embrace present and former metropolis officers, faculty board members, and county commissioners throughout Frio County. The fees vary from vote harvesting to tampering with authorities information, all tied to the identical alleged coordinated ballot-collection community.
Courtroom filings reviewed within the case describe how vote harvesters allegedly approached voters, significantly the aged, underneath the pretext of providing help, then took possession of ballots earlier than they have been mailed.
In some cases, investigators say, these concerned exchanged money or digital funds by way of apps like Money App to safe ballots or voter data. Beneath Texas legislation, providing or accepting compensation for poll assortment is a third-degree felony.
Regardless of the scale of the operation and the variety of public officers implicated, nationwide Democrats and outstanding state-level Democrats have been nearly solely silent.
For years, Democrats have claimed that voter fraud in Texas is just about nonexistent. But right here, in a single rural county, a two-year probe has resulted in fifteen legal indictments, together with towards a sitting county choose, a number of metropolis council members, and faculty district officers.
Texas legislation treats chain-of-custody breaches, compensated poll assortment, and tampering with election information as severe offenses for a purpose. Mail-in ballots are particularly weak to exploitation when voter identities, poll custody, and submission procedures are not strictly protected.
The Frio County case demonstrates how simply these protections could be circumvented when officers themselves are concerned in breaking the legislation.
Election integrity isn’t a partisan difficulty, however the refusal of Democrats to handle this case underscores a broader double normal. When allegations contain Republicans, Democrats demand full investigations, resignations, and sweeping reforms. When the accused are Democrats—particularly in areas vital to their electoral technique—silence prevails.
