Editor’s Update: A previous version of this story indicated that Richard Molina is a Democrat, but the town of Edinburg elects their mayor without party affiliations listed. The error has been corrected.
In addition, the county Molina was elected in is a Democratic stronghold per the NY Times.
Mr. Molina was arrested in the Democratic stronghold of the Rio Grande Valley, the result of an investigation led by a Republican attorney general. But the case is being prosecuted by a local Democrat, Ricardo Rodriguez Jr., the Hidalgo County district attorney, with assistance from Mr. Paxton’s office.
Mr. Molina’s lawyer said the accusations against his client fit with a partisan election-fraud narrative, adding that the mayor had also filed similar voter-fraud complaints with the county and the state but that those complaints went nowhere.
On Thursday, the Mayor of Edinburg, Texas, Richard Molina, turned himself in to authorities and was arrested for voter fraud charges.
According to law enforcement, Molina and his wife were involved in an “illegal voting scheme” in the 2017 mayoral election.
Police allege that Molina and his wife “had numerous voters” fraudulently register for the election, which he later won, in what authorities describe as a “vote harvesting scheme.”
BREAKING: Mayor of Edinburg has been arrested for voter fraud.
Voter fraud is an affront to democracy and places the decision-making authority of the Texas electorate in the hands of those who have no right to make those choices. https://t.co/MfeE1i6v81
— Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) April 25, 2019
Molina has been accused of ordering voters to illegally change their registration information, with some even claiming to live in an apartment complex he owns, in order to help him win the election.
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