March 15, 2018 • Local News
El Paso Times: Ex-Congress candidate Norma Chavez cites fraud in suit against Veronica Escobar
Former state Rep. Norma Chavez and two other candidates who lost their bids for Congress have filed a lawsuit against Veronica Escobar and the county's head of elections, alleging the primary election was rigged.
In their lawsuit filed Wednesday, Chavez, Enrique Garcia and John Carrillo allege election fraud in their loss to Escobar, the Democratic nominee for the 16th District seat, and El Paso County Elections Administrator Lisa Wise.
In their suit, the plaintiffs "generally contend that an election officer or other person(s) officially involved in the administration of the election, including Lisa Wise, engaged in fraud or illegal conduct ... to wit tampering with the initial programming of some of the hard drives before the election began and distributing those hard drives to high-producing voting locations to extract votes from petitioners for the benefit of Veronica Escobar."
The lawsuit provides no evidence to support the tampering claims.
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Chavez and the others cite a section of the Texas Election Code that states they can contest the election results if they believe they do not reflect the true outcome because election officials "engaged in other fraud or illegal conduct or made a mistake."
According to court documents, Garcia requested an external independent audit from the county's Election Department on Dec. 7 to ensure accuracy of equipment, but the request was denied on Dec. 11 — the same day Chavez filed for office.
Escobar, the former county judge, won the Democratic nomination for the seat during the May 6 primary with more than 60 percent of the vote.
Dori Fenenbock, a former board president of the El Paso Independent School District who experts predicted would likely force Escobar into a runoff, took 22 percent of the vote.
Chavez, who served in the Texas legislature from 1997 to 2011, received 7 percent of the vote; while Garcia took 5 percent of the vote and Carrillo took 2 percent of the votes.
The suit was filed in the 41st District Court with Judge Annabell Perez.
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