By The thing the Democrats say never happens somehow happened again. A sitting Democratic judge and five others—including her sister, local election officials, and members of city government—have been indicted for their alleged involvement in a vote harvesting scheme tied to the 2022 Democratic primary, according to a Wednesday announcement by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Judge Rochelle Lozano Camacho, elected to the bench in Frio County, faces three felony counts of vote harvesting. Her co-defendants include her sister, a county trustee; the Frio County election administrator; two Pearsall city council members; and a sixth individual whose identity has not been disclosed, writes The Daily Caller.
The charges stem from a multi-year investigation launched in 2022 after Camacho’s opponent in the Democratic primary runoff, Mary Moore, filed a complaint, San Antonio-based ABC affiliate KSAT reported. Moore accused Camacho of hiring a longtime Democrat operative to gather mail ballots, complete applications, and even drive voters to polling locations. She allegedly paid them between $1,500 and $2,500.
Camacho allegedly targeted elderly voters in a Pearsall, Texas subdivision, Newsweek reported. One of Camacho’s partners in the scheme reportedly concealed ballots under her shirt and used multiple vehicles to avoid detection from investigators.
Judge Camacho campaigned on a message of “UNITY, MOVEMENT and PROGRESSION FOR FRIO COUNTY,” and alerted people to the start of “mail outs” and early voting in 2022. She beat Moore by 157 votes in the primary to advance to a runoff where she won by 72 votes out of 322 total ballots cast.
Vote harvesting typically refers to the collection and delivery of completed absentee or mail-in ballots by a third party. While the voter is supposed to fill out and seal the ballot themselves, someone else takes it to a drop box. Vote harvesting is illegal in many states, including in Texas.
Under Texas law, the judge’s alleged crime is a third-degree felony punishable by up to ten years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Attorney General Paxton, a Republican mounting a challenge against U.S. Senator John Cornyn in the 2026 GOP primary, emphasized the political and legal stakes. “Public officials who abuse their power to cheat elections will face justice,” Paxton said in a statement. His office has made election-related prosecutions a cornerstone of his platform, previously charging a county commissioner and others with similar offenses in 2020.
The Houston Chronicle recently reported that Cornyn might be in trouble against Paxton. “A Republican poll obtained exclusively by the Houston Chronicle show Cornyn is down against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton among likely GOP primary voters by 17 percentage points. A Democratic poll shows him down more than 20 percentage points.”
All defendants except Camacho were arrested on May 2. The judge is expected to be processed at a later date. The indictments have reignited debate over the integrity of Texas elections and the legality of third-party ballot collection practices, issues that remain at the center of the state’s partisan divide.
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