A former Democratic Party County Chair from Texas has been indicted along with eight others in what authorities say was an illegal vote-harvesting scheme.
Juan Manuel Medina, the former Bexar County Democratic Party Chair and one-time candidate for mayor of San Antonio, is facing two counts of vote harvesting, Newsmax reported.
The charges are the result of a broader statewide investigation led by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Prosecutors say Medina carried out vote harvesting on behalf of Democrat Cecilia Castellano, who ran unsuccessfully in 2024 for the Texas House District 80 seat. She lost to Republican Don McLaughlin.
According to the documents, Medina allegedly offered “compensation or other benefit” to two individuals—Rachel Leal and former Dilley council member Inelda Rodriguez—in February 2024 in exchange for “vote-harvesting services.”
Castellano, Leal, and Rodriguez were all indicted along with Medina.
“Cecilia is innocent. She didn’t do anything illegal, and I don’t think they are going to be able to prove it,” said her attorney, Don Flanary, according to The Texas Tribune. “The problem is it’s very chilling for people.”
Also indicted were five others: former Pearsall Mayor Petra Davina Trevino, former Dilley Mayor Mary Ann Obregon, Susanna Flores Carrizales, Frio County Precinct 3 Commissioner Raul Carrizales III, and Pearsall ISD Board Secretary Maricela Garcia Benavides.
The indictments follow a May announcement by Paxton that six people were charged as part of the same Frio County probe. That investigation previously led to a raid on Medina’s home and the seizure of Castellano’s phone.
Back in September, a state district judge had blocked Paxton’s attempt to stop Bexar County from mailing voter registration forms to county residents. But that ruling was later overturned by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans after Paxton’s office appealed.
Just last month, Paxton revealed a new wave of investigations—this time into 33 “potential noncitizens” who allegedly voted in the 2024 election.
Those cases were referred to his office after the Texas Secretary of State flagged questionable voter registrations using a federal immigration verification system known as SAVE. That database, run by the Department of Homeland Security, helps confirm whether someone has acquired U.S. citizenship or holds legal immigration status.
In October 2022, two people were indicted in Arizona as part of a vote harvesting scheme in Yuma County. Then-Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) said the scheme occurred during the 2020 election, The Epoch Times reported, adding:
Gloria Lopez Torres and Nadia Guadalupe Lizarraga-Mayorquin, both of San Luis, face charges of conspiracy and ballot abuse, said the attorney general in a news release. Ballot harvesting is considered a class 6 felony. Lopez Torres, notably, is currently a sitting San Luis Council member, according to local media. They are accused of conducting a scheme to collect “early ballots from other voters” and deposit them in a ballot box during the state’s primary election in August 2020.
Torres is accused of collecting seven ballots from Lizarraga-Mayorquin, according to grand jury indictments (pdf) (pdf) that were returned earlier this month. Lizarraga-Mayorquin collected at least one ballot from a third party that was not disclosed.
“Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced that Gloria Lopez Torres of San Luis, and Nadia Guadalupe Lizarraga-Mayorquin of San Luis, also known as Nadia Buchanan, have been charged by the State Grand Jury with Conspiracy and Ballot Abuse arising from an alleged ‘ballot harvesting’ scheme, where early ballots from other voters were collected and deposited into a ballot box on primary Election Day, August 4, 2020. The City of San Luis held municipal elections on that date,” the attorney general’s office said on its website.
“The Grand Jury indictments, returned on October 3, 2022, alleging that Torres collected seven ballots from Lizarraga-Mayorquin and that Lizarraga-Mayorquin collected at least one ballot from a third party.
