Lawsuit claims voter fraud by former state rep., justices of the peace

The Attorney General’s office is looking into voter fraud allegations against former State Rep. Chente Quintanilla and two current Justices of the Peace.

Katherine Wise, the Deputy Press Secretary for Attorney General Ken Paxton would not comment on the issue, only saying there was “ongoing litigation.”

A December 2014 letter obtained by the ABC-7 I-team shows the Secretary of State forwarded the case to the Attorney General, citing information that warrants a “submission for criminal investigation.”

“I cannot comment because I have not been told about anything on this,” said Quintanilla over the phone on Thursday.

The issue stems from allegations made by former Justice of the Peace for Precinct Six, Rosalie Dominguez.

In a civil suit, she accuses Quintanilla and her former opponent Enedina Nina Serna of election manipulation. Dominguez said she hired private investigating firm Advocate Investigations who allegedly uncovered Serna and Quintanilla signed up seniors for absentee ballots for homebound residents and unlawfully picked up the ballots at their homes.

“It’s against the law to be picking up people’s ballots and especially if you’re the one running for office and you’re picking up people’s ballots, it’s illegal,” said Dominguez.

In a May 2014 runoff race, Serna unseated Dominguez by 63 votes.

Dominguez said it was up to the Attorney General to investigate if Quintanilla or Serna tampered with the ballots or filled them out themselves. She submitted the information from her private investigation to the state last year. She said an agent recently contacted her and told her there were “discrepancies in all those homebound ballots” from the runoff.”

Serna did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Dominguez also included justice of the peace Ruben Lujan in the suit, saying he threatened seniors to not cooperate with her investigation. Lujan refused an interview but over the phone said he would have no need to manipulate an election, calling Dominguez’s lawsuit “frivolous.”

“Judge Dominguez lost the election and she should have left with her head up high and with dignity. She’s a sore loser. I’m not going to take this sitting down and I do plan to counter sue her for defamation of character,” Lujan said on the phone.

“It’s been over a year and he hasn’t filed anything against me,” countered Dominguez. She is seeking $400,000 in compensation for damages, saying that’s the salary she lost from being unseated through election fraud.

“It’s not about the money, I really don’t care about the lawsuit, it’s more about what they’ve done and what they continue to do to these seniors and I want it to stop and there’s another election coming up and I don’t want this to continue. I never thought this would happen here in the U.S. That you can manipulate the elections.”