Elderly voters say they were victims of fraud at Houston early voting site

HOUSTON - Some elderly members of Houston’s Vietnamese-American community say they were victims of voter fraud when they went to cast their ballots at the Marriott Hotel early voting site on Gulf Freeway on the first day of early voting.

Thuy Nguyen says her friend Kim Au, her husband Tan Nguyen, and several others believe that their ballots went to the wrong candidates when election workers voted for them.

Tan Nguyen suffers from health issues and a language barrier, so he enlisted the help of an election worker.

“He said that time he came in and he wanted to choose Republican, but the lady come and put Democrat,” said Thuy Nguyen, Tan’s wife. “That’s what he don’t want.”

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Thuy Nguyen spoke with FOX 26, translating for her husband as well as her 80-year-old friend Mai Lu, a first-time voter, and Soi Au, husband of Kim Au, who all voted at the same polling place on the same day.

“Only one Trump—she said like that,” said Thuy, explaining what Mai Lu told the election worker. “And then the Vietnamese lady tell her this, this, this, this.”

Thuy says the clerk who helped Mai Lu did cast the ballot for Donald Trump, as Mai Lu had asked, but then the clerk proceeded to select several Democratic candidates after Mai Lu did not ask to vote for anyone but Trump.

“She said, Oh put Democrat some of it—no problem,” said Thuy, describing Kim Au’s experience after asking to vote straight Republican. “I said, that’s illegal. You cannot do that.”

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Thuy says she reported the issue to the Harris County Clerk’s Office the same day. The clerk’s office did receive the call and investigated the issue, according to Du-Ha Nguyen, voter outreach coordinator for the Harris County Clerk’s Office.

“She complained that her husband went to vote, and someone at the poll was assisting her husband incorrectly,” Du-Ha told FOX 26.

Du-Ha says she spoke with Thuy about the alleged voter fraud but was not able to speak to Tan or the other alleged victims of fraud.

“We contacted the presiding judge, and the presiding judge said he didn’t see anything going on, but he made sure he was going to talk to his clerks, to the staff, and make sure nothing happens like that again,” said Du-Ha.

Du-Ha says the clerk’s office has not received any reports of election workers voting incorrectly for voters since then. She says they also did not discipline any of the staff at the early voting location because they were not able to get interviews with the people who were allegedly victimized.