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Indictments have been issued in Texas as part of a sweeping investigation into alleged illegal ballot harvesting, with a former Democratic Party County Chair and eight others now facing serious charges. Juan Manuel Medina, who previously served as the Bexar County Democratic Chair and also ran for mayor of San Antonio, has been named in a pair of vote-harvesting indictments. The development stems from an ongoing probe led by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office has been investigating election-related irregularities across multiple counties.
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Documents linked to the case indicate that Medina was allegedly involved in efforts to secure votes for Democrat Cecilia Castellano, who ran unsuccessfully in 2024 for the Texas House District 80 seat, losing to Republican Don McLaughlin.
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Allegations in the indictment suggest that offers of compensation or benefits were made to two individuals, Rachel Leal and former Dilley Council Member Inelda Rodriguez, in February 2024, in exchange for participation in vote-harvesting activities. Castellano, Leal, and Rodriguez were also included among those indicted.
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Castellano’s attorney has rejected all allegations, asserting that no unlawful actions took place. Don Flanary, her legal counsel, argued that the charges appear to lack strong evidence and may discourage future political involvement, according to reporting from The Texas Tribune.
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Other defendants in the case include Susanna Flores Carrizales, Frio County Precinct 3 Commissioner Raul Carrizales III, former Pearsall Mayor Petra Davina Trevino, former Dilley Mayor Mary Ann Obregon, and Pearsall ISD Board Secretary Maricela Garcia Benavides.
These indictments follow an announcement made in May by Paxton, in which charges against six others in Frio County were revealed as part of the same investigation. Earlier stages of the inquiry had resulted in a raid on Medina’s residence and the confiscation of Castellano’s phone.
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Texas AG Paxton moved to block Bexar County’s attempt to distribute voter registration forms to the public, even though a state district judge initially halted the move, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans later overturned that ruling.
Paxton has also announced an additional investigation into 33 alleged unlawful voters in the 2024 election. Following the Texas Secretary of State’s use of the Department of Homeland Security’s federal SAVE system to find voter registrations associated with noncitizens, these individuals were highlighted.
Other states have also been dealing with vote-harvesting allegations. In Arizona, two individuals, Gloria Lopez Torres and Nadia Guadalupe Lizarraga-Mayorquin, were indicted in October 2022 for ballot abuse in Yuma County. At the time, Attorney General Mark Brnovich stated that the two women had collected and deposited ballots during the state’s 2020 primary election in violation of Arizona law.
Torres, who still served on the San Luis City Council, was accused of collecting ballots from Lizarraga-Mayorquin, who in turn had reportedly obtained ballots from a third, undisclosed party. According to indictments filed by a state grand jury, the conduct had been categorized as a violation of election integrity statutes and classified as a felony offense.
The accusations were linked to concerted efforts to gather and deposit early votes for the August 4, 2020, election, which fell on the same day as the city’s municipal voting schedule, according to confirmation from the Arizona Attorney General’s office. As election integrity continues to dominate public discourse, efforts by Republican officials to enforce legal safeguards remain underway across several states.