Illegal voting charges against a Mercedes woman were dismissed just one day after authorities arrested her, and more than three years after the incident allegedly occurred.
Bianca Gonzalez Morón, 32, of Mercedes, was arrested on an outstanding bench warrant shortly after she walked into the 389th state District Court on Monday morning.
Morón was there to face a single count of illegal voting stemming from a single-count indictment handed up by a grand jury on April 28.
The grand jury had found probable cause to suspect that Morón had illegally voted in a 2019 La Villa municipal election.
“Bianca Morón, hereinafter styled Defendant, on or about the 4th day of May A.D., 2019… did then and there vote in an election, specifically, the 2019 City of La Villa municipal election, when the defendant knew that she was not a residence (sic) of the City of Edinburg (sic) and was not eligible to vote in that election,” the indictment reads, in part.
The mention of “the City of Edinburg” is a typographical error in the indictment and should have correctly read “city of La Villa.”
Morón was taken into custody Monday and later released from the Hidalgo County jail on the same day.
However, the following day — Tuesday — prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the charge against her “in the interest of justice.”
State District Judge Letty Lopez dismissed the case against Morón that morning.
Morón is the niece of La Villa Mayor Alma Morón, who was first elected to office in June 2016 when she defeated then-incumbent Hector Elizondo by just four votes.
Mayor Morón was not a candidate in the May 2019 election. Instead, up for a vote were the Place 1, 2 and 3 aldermen seats, which were won by Manuel M. Hinojosa, Joe Contreras, and Mario Lopez, respectively.
All three aldermen were incumbents going into the 2019 race. Their seats will again be up for election in May 2023.
Reached for comment Thursday, Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez was mum as to why the illegal voting charge against Bianca Morón had been dismissed just one day after she appeared for court.
However, the DA did indicate there may be more defendants to come.
“On that case, I’m not gonna be able to comment at this point, other that that we dismissed it in the interest of justice,” Rodriguez said.
“Because of those other cases that are pending, I won’t comment on it yet until we decide what we’re gonna do with those cases,” he added a moment later.
One point Rodriguez did clarify, however, was that the charge against Bianca Morón wasn’t dismissed due to the clerical error in the indictment, which erroneously mentioned the “City of Edinburg” instead of the city of La Villa.
A search of county records revealed that during the May 2019 election, Bianca Morón was registered to vote at an address on Laurel Avenue in La Villa.
The address is the site of a small cottage-style home with a covered porch and a host of potted plants.
But Bianca Morón wasn’t the only person whose voter information lists that address for the May 2019 election.
Nine other people were also registered at that address and allegedly cast their ballots during early voting that year. Six of those people have the same surname.
Bianca Morón was charged under Sec. 64.012 of the Texas Election Code, which defines illegal voting, in part, as when a person “votes or attempts to vote in an election in which the person knows the person is not eligible to vote…”
The statute describes the crime as a Class A misdemeanor, but court records show Bianca Morón was charged with a second-degree felony.
That’s because on Dec. 2, 2021, a new law that was passed during a special session of the 87th Texas Legislature went into effect.
Known as Senate Bill 1, the law ushered in broad new restrictions on voting and access to voting, including the elimination of drive-thru polling places, which had gained popularity in 2020 during the social distancing era of the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the bill also lessened the penalty for illegal voting convictions.
Instead of being a second-degree felony that carried a penalty of up to 20 years in prison, illegal voting became a Class A misdemeanor with a penalty of up to a year in jail or a fine.
Since Bianca Morón allegedly cast an illegal vote in an election that happened before 2021, she was charged under the older version of the law, which carried a harsher punishment.
