West Dallas residents detail encounters with voter fraud suspect
West Dallas residents told FOX4 about how they came to suspect someone was committing voter fraud in their neighborhoods.
At least 700 mail-in ballots are associated with the possible scheme. Most of the attention is on the District 2 and District 6 Dallas City Council races, but there are also reports of suspicious ballot activity in Grand Prairie.
It started with one person in Westmoreland Heights talking to her neighbors about receiving a mail-in-ballot she did not request. Neighbors spotted the suspect going door to door, and even managed to call police, but he apparently got away.
"I just happened to be here when he delivered the mail,” said Mary Milam, who thought it was odd when she received a mail in ballot without requesting one. "I thought why would I be getting an absentee ballot, because I've never voted that way."
Milam called the Dallas County Elections Office.
“She said you filled out an application that said you wanted an absentee ballot. I said, ‘No I've never done that’ and she said, ‘Yes you did, it was witnessed by Jose Rodriguez,’” Milam said.
But Milam said she doesn't know any Jose Rodriguez. The elections office sent Milam the signed request form they'd received.
“Whoever it was put my name as Mary A. Watson. My name is Mary Alice Watson-Milam,” Milam said. “They forged my signature. And then they witnessed, it, the ghost Jose Rodriguez, whoever it is.”
Milam started talking to her neighbors. She and Debora Moore found about six others with similar stories.
“Word of mouth -- telling people not to give these ballots to them,” said Moore.
One neighbor, who did not want to be on camera, told FOX4 a man claiming to be Jose Rodriguez told her he used to work for Monica Alonzo, but he was now working for one of her opponents. When he approached the president of the neighborhood association, Dr. Pat Stephens says she was prepared.
"Show me your ID,” Stephens said she asked him. “He said why do you want to see my ID?"
Stephens said she wanted to take a picture of the ID. Police were called and tried to find the man, but so far no success.
A judge granted an order allowing the district attorney's office to review all of the suspicious ballots. Prosecutors plan to send them to a forensic lab to try to figure out who Jose Rodriquez really is and who he was working for.