Voter fraud in Texas is real, and it's not at the ballot box, Newsradio 1200 WOAI reports.
Four women in Ft. Worth are accused of running a voter fraud ring.
In a statement, the Texas Attorney General says they were paid to target senior citizens"A scheme to generate a large number of mail ballots and then harvest those ballots for specific candidates in 2016,” the statement read.
This is just the latest in a long line of mail-in ballot fraud.
Long time Texas GOP voting fraud expert Alan Vera says there are now 26 convictions in South Texas.
He credits republicans in the state legislature who got the crime raised to a felony.
"Fraud on a mail ballot, as a percentage of all mail ballots voted, is a serious problem. No question," he said. "Last legislative session, it was Sen. Kelly Hancock who led the charge to raise the penalty."
In America, the right to vote is sacred," said Sen. Hancock in a statement. "Sadly, we've seen criminals make mail ballots a prime target for illegal voting and election fraud, and they must be stopped. This legislation makes significant strides toward protecting every Texan's right to 'one person, one vote'."
In Texas, much of the focus of voter fraud has been on Voter ID. Vera says what needs to happen is to do away with mail-in ballots. He says complains run rampant with the Secretary of State.
"Eighty-five to 95-percent of the calls and emails he gets involve nursing home ballots," he says.
A push to get elections coordinators into senior centers fell flat last legislative session.
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