Medrano v. State

In Medrano v. State, 421 S.W.3d 869, 884 (Tex. App.--Dallas 2014, pet. ref'd), the defendant, Carlos Medrano, was charged with soliciting a niece, Veronica Medrano, to illegally vote in an election in which Medrano was a candidate for office. See 421 S.W.3d at 873, 881. Veronica filled out a voter registration card and voted in the election when she knew she was using an address where she did not reside, she knew she was not a resident of the precinct in which she voted, and she knew that to vote in the election she had to lie on her voter registration card. See id. at 875. Thus, there was no dispute that Veronica knew where she resided. On appeal, the court rejected Veronica's contention that the evidence was insufficient to prove that she knew she was not eligible to vote. Id. at 885. The court reasoned that the State only needed to prove that Veronica voted in the election "when she knew she was not a resident of the precinct for which she was voting," based on the general rule that "ignorance of the law is no excuse." Id.