XPost: tx.politics, alt.politics.elections, alt.politics.republicans
XPost: sac.politics, talk.politics.misc

More arrests! On Wednesday, the Texas Tribune ran a story headlined, “Frio County public officials among six indicted after elections investigation, Paxton says.” The sub-headline explained, “The county judge, two city
council members and others are accused of vote harvesting.”

As part of a widening election integrity investigation by Texas’s terrific Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Frio ‘County judge’ (like a county
mayor), the former supervisor of elections, two Pearsall City Council
members, a school board member, and a person who helped “harvest votes”
were each charged and arrested under a post-pandemic law.

All were Democrats.

Paxton brought the charges under Texas’ Senate Bill 1, passed in 2021,
which makes it a third-degree felony for a person to knowingly provide or
offer “vote harvesting services” for compensation (with certain
exceptions). Violators can spend up to 10 years in prison and be fined up
to $10,000 for offering banned services. Activists immediately challenged
the law, arguing it suppresses minority voters, who apparently can’t vote
by themselves like everyone else.

The case remains in litigation, but Paxon got the federal appellate court
to lift a stay.

The search warrants stated that the arrested officials either knowingly provided “vote harvesting services” for money, or, in the case of the
former elections administrator, tried to conceal and destroy evidence. The crimes involved collecting and submitting batches of absentee ballots.
Several defendants allegedly used Cash App to pay harvesters.

The vote harvesting operation apparently targeted elderly and disabled
people. One woman allegedly smuggled ballots under her shirt and switched vehicles to avoid detection. Local district DA Audrey Louis said,
“Violating the privacy or voting rights of our elderly or disabled
community members will be met with zero tolerance.”

It sounds like the Democrats were harvesting votes from nursing homes.

“The people of Texas deserve fair and honest elections, not backroom deals
and political insiders rigging the system,” Paxton said. “Elected
officials who think they can cheat to stay in power will be held
accountable. No one is above the law.”

The arrests might have only included unknown office-holders in an obscure
Texas county, but they nevertheless signaled a cacophonous revolution in election integrity.

For decades, there’s been a quiet, bipartisan taboo against criminally prosecuting elected officials for election-related misconduct except where
the evidence was overwhelming and the political winds absolutely demanded
it. This de facto immunity wasn’t law— it was more of an unspoken
professional courtesy, a kind of “mutually assured discretion” pact among
the political classes.

Especially in blue counties or places where the Democrat machine controls
local governments, that professional courtesy often extended to
overlooking or soft-pedaling systemic problems like ballot trafficking, signature mismatches, or suspicious surges in absentee returns from
nursing homes.

But by charging five current and former elected Democrats —including a
sitting county judge and two current city council members— Paxton
shattered that political protective barrier. This wasn’t just a slap on
the wrist for an overzealous staffer. It is a full-on assault on a local political machine. Prosecuting one officeholder is newsworthy enough. But
five? That’s a warning shot with laser sights.

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For any historical context, you’d have to go all the way back to Tammany Hall-style crackdowns, or isolated federal corruption busts like Operation Greylord (a 1980s judicial corruption in Illinois), to find comparable boldness. But even those examples barely touched electioneering. They
focused instead on more obvious crimes, like bribes, kickbacks, and
perjury.

Paxton’s latest move is historic, not just for who he arrested, but for
what it signals: a willingness to confront entrenched electoral abuse,
even by putting officeholders in handcuffs. It’s a legal line-crossing
that could signal the beginning of a whole new era— one in which voter
fraud isn’t just an endless talking point, but finally becomes a jail-
worthy offense.

If Paxton’s prosecutions stick —and especially if they lead to criminal convictions— expect a seismic chill across the classic Democratic vote- harvesting model ahead of the 2026 midterms. Political operatives in other states may be reluctant to stretch the rules very far, since nursing home sweeps, ballot chaperoning, and so-called “assistance” services could
carry real criminal risk.

That fear could bottleneck the informal “ground game” operations that
quietly tilt close elections. Paxton’s boldness in Texas may embolden
other attorneys general in other red states, who might start targeting
similar practices that have long been considered untouchable. And
Democrats may be forced to rely more heavily on traditional GOTV methods,
while Republicans gain leverage not through legislation, but prosecution- driven deterrence.

If repeated nationally, this could meaningfully narrow the margin in swing districts— especially in Sun Belt and Rust Belt states, where razor-thin outcomes have become the norm. It’s incredible progress, and should be immensely encouraging to those of us who’ve been waiting like Godot for
any real accountability for voting fraud.

https://floppingaces.net/most-wanted/democrats-busted-running-a-ballot- racket-out-of-texas-nursing-homes-and-paxton-just-lit-the-fuse-nationwide/

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