Frio County Vote Harvesting Ring Suspects Doubled, More Officials Included
By Ian Camacho | Texas Scorecard | May 27, 2025
Six Frio County officials and campaign workers were indicted on felony vote harvesting and evidence tampering charges after a year-long investigation into paid ballot collection targeting elderly voters.
“Good afternoon. This is what I’ll be charging for the election: 2,100 each.”
Four Frio County candidates received this identical text message from Cheryl Denise Castillo on February 27, 2023.
“I want 1000 up front and then you will have 2 months to pay me the rest of the 1000,” she added. “This is the lowest I could go … and I will take turns with y’all for gas and stamps.”
Frio County Sheriff Peter Salinas (D) received one such message.
He later called her in December while speaking with investigators, where she again offered her services on the spot.
As a professional vote harvester, Castillo contacted local Frio Democrat candidates and offered her services to collect votes and help them win their races.
Vote harvesting is a third-degree felony that can result in prison sentences of up to ten years and fines of up to $10,000.
Castillo will not face any such charges, as she died in October of last year.
Six others in Frio County, however, received grand jury indictments on May 1, including County Judge Rochelle Camacho (D), her sister Adriann Ramirez (Pearsall ISD trustee), city council members Ramiro Trevino and Racheal Garza, former elections administrator Carlos Segura, and campaign worker Rosa Rodriguez. All bonded out after arraignment.
“This is voter suppression 101,” responded Gabriel Rosales, Texas director for the League of United Latin American Citizens. “There’s no vote harvesting going on. There’s nobody creating these ballots. That’s a lie.”
According to search warrant applications from investigator Sgt. Donald Smith, Castillo and others collected, advised, and sometimes mishandled ballots, often targeting elderly or ineligible voters.
“The only word I have right now is that it’s ridiculous,” Segura said of the accusations.
Segura, a previous elections administrator, allegedly provided Castillo with ballot status-tracking information and information on the neighborhoods another alleged vote harvester, Maria del Carmen Vela, targeted.
The State Commission on Judicial Conduct suspended Judge Camacho without pay due to the indictments.
As Judge Camacho’s alleged primary vote harvester, Castillo hid ballots underneath her shirt and used different vehicles “to throw off investigators.”
One month after her call with Salinas, Castillo allegedly told another candidate’s campaign worker, “that ‘honest to God’ if you do not go after the elderly [and] disabled, then you will lose your election.”
Castillo also told Salinas she put herself only in situations where she could see the voters’ selections, refusing any voter’s mail-in ballot who voted for the opponent.
This would have helped her competition: Maria del Carmen Vela.
Vela worked for opposing candidates in city, county, and school board elections.
Vela’s candidates reportedly often paid her in cigarettes, gas, and Dr. Pepper.
They got what they paid for; most lost their races or went to the runoffs.
However, in a county where vote harvesting happens so frequently, community members recognized Castillo and Vela whenever they came to collect their votes.
Some witnesses even believed Castillo officially worked with the elections department, as she had offered her services for so long.
The case began after Mary Moore, who lost to Camacho in 2022, reported a tip about paid ballot collection. Moore and others have a history of political disputes in Frio County.
In 2015, the former Frio County judge, city manager, county attorney, and local deputy targeted Moore by improperly accessing her criminal record. The four abruptly resigned and made plea bargains.
Moore suspected the four targeted her for attempting to recall former Mayor Davina Trevino-Rodriguez and her uncle, City Councilman Roy Trevino.
Both names appear on a growing Frio County suspect list with at least twelve others.
According to search warrants, investigators seized the cell phones of several others they believe either gave or received money for vote harvesting:
- Cheryl Denise Castillo, a primary vote harvester. Castillo died in October 2024, but allegedly still received texts requesting her services while under investigation.
- Maria del Carmen Vela, another primary ballot harvester. According to records, she admitted to helping her brother Joe.
- Joe Vela, Frio County commissioner – Precinct 1. He allegedly paid his sister Maria to help him win the 2024 Democrat primary and runoff.
- Louisa Martinez, a Pearsall ISD candidate who lost her race in 2023. According to records, Martinez paid Vela in Dr. Pepper, cigarettes, and gas for ballots.
- Raul Carrizales III, Frio County commissioner – Precinct 3. Castillo received $3,000 to secure votes for Carrizales, despite Castillo saying she was under investigation.
- Mari Benavides, Pearsall ISD board member and secretary, allegedly paid Castillo $2,100 for vote harvesting in 2023 for the school board election. Reports show that she also offered to help Castillo with the vote harvesting process.
- Davina Trevino Rodriguez, a former Pearsall city mayor and niece of indicted Pearsall City Council Member Ramiro Trevino, allegedly paid Castillo to secure ballots on her behalf in 2023. Castillo reportedly texted her and three others to offer her vote harvesting services.
None have yet received indictments or arrests.
The records show a detailed text and call history between the competing vote harvesters and their respective candidate clients.
A woman working for Martinez allegedly told investigators that the team knew the election would be tough to win and admitted to providing Vela with sodas, cigarettes, and gas in exchange for collecting ballots on Martinez’s behalf.
Martinez told investigators she knew of the compensation and hoped Vela could help her.
Despite her efforts, Martinez lost the overall election by two votes. However, she won in early walk-in and mail-in balloting 259-229.
Vela admitted to supporting Martinez in 2023 by securing mail-in votes for her. Joe, her brother, won in the Democrat primary runoff. Mr. Vela told the attorney general’s office he could have avoided a runoff had she “not forgotten 25 mail-in ballots in Derby.”
Meanwhile, Raul Carrizales messaged Castillo as early as 2022 asking about her services. According to records, a woman working for Carrizales paid Castillo $1,000 three times. Carrizales won the 2024 Democrat primary and ran unopposed in November.
Another candidate even added notes stating “election” to Castillo’s payments in 2022.
A cooperating witness took a state-issued recording device a month after Sheriff Salinas’ call into a meeting with Castillo.
The audio allegedly captured Castillo’s discussions with Manuel Medina.
A former chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party and chief of staff to State Rep. Liz Campos (D–San Antonio), Medina claimed to work for House Democrat candidate Cecilia Castellano.
Audio recordings allegedly captured Castillo explaining how Castellano would use CashApp to pay Castillo’s daughter, who would accept the funds on Castillo’s behalf.
Castillo also allegedly explained her ballot-collecting operations and intent to provide those services for the 2024 elections in the recording.
Last August, Paxton’s investigators seized Medina’s cellphone, 65 other cell phones, and 41 computers from his home.
Authorities searched the homes of five others who worked on Castellano’s campaign.
Gabriel Rosales of LULAC called the searches and seizures “disgraceful and outrageous.”
In a different audio-recorded conversation, Castillo said, “[Mayor] Davina [Trevino Rodriguez] could not win her election by herself.”
The ongoing investigation will likely yield even more indictments and arrests as the original search warrants included Atascosa and Bexar counties.
Ian Camacho
Ian Camacho graduated from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Follow him on X @RealIanCamacho and Substack (iancamacho.substack.com)