HOUSTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- A Republican candidate for local office in Texas faces felony charges for voting in Texas and Pennsylvania in the last three elections, a party official said.
Bruce J. Fleming, a Republican Party precinct chairman running for Fort Bend County Commissioner's Court, voted in person in Texas in 2006, 2008 and 2010 -- and voted by mail in those elections in Yardley, Pa., where he owns property, the Houston Chronicle reported Thursday, citing election records.
Fleming told the Chronicle Tuesday he could not comment on the matter until "we can determine the situation."
"The less said is better," he said.
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Mike Gibson, chairman of the Republican Party of Fort Bend County, declined to comment but called the allegation serious. He said Fleming had been "extremely involved with the party" and was named precinct chairman of the year in 2010.
Fort Bend Democrats say Fleming should be taken off the ballot, but Gibson told the Chronicle it's too late.
"If he's elected, the only way to get him out would be if he was convicted of a felony, which this would be," Gibson said.
"I'm, frankly, shocked at the double, secret life that my opponent has been living for the past six years," said the Democratic nominee, incumbent Commissioner Richard Morrison.
Fort Bend County Democratic Chairman Steve Brown ridiculed Catherine Engelbrecht, who lives in Fort Bend and runs a Tea Party-based operation called True the Vote, which advocates for stricter voter ID laws and has had a hand in efforts to purge voter rolls.
"While local and national Republican leaders were tilting at the windmills of imaginary voter fraud, real voter fraud was taking place under their noses," Brown said.
Texas Democratic Party officials said they will file complaints with the U.S. Justice Department, the state attorney general and officials in Pennsylvania.
Fleming's wife, Nancy, who is identified as a resident of Yardley, voted by mail in both Texas and Pennsylvania in 2010, the newspaper said.
