The district attorney is investigating possible illegal voting by a Bartonville couple after elections officials turned over evidence earlier this week.

Denton County Elections Administrator Don Alexander said that once he was able to substantiate a complaint that Bartonville residents Ralph Rather, 48, and Teresa Rather, 45, voted in the Argyle Town Council election, he turned over photographs, voting records and other documents related to the case to the county district attorney’s office.

Texas election laws require, with few exceptions, that voters be registered and cast ballots where they live. Voting elsewhere is a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Property tax records show the couple’s home address in the 700 block of Dove Creek in Bartonville.

Assistant District Attorney Jamie Beck said Friday that the chief investigator would review the case and determine what, if any, action to take.

“The case is in the investigation stage,” Beck said.

Teresa Rather said that she always had everything mailed to her office — even her driver’s license — and she didn’t know it was a problem to be registered to vote there.

“I do have a house in Argyle — I have several,” Rather said. “I just moved to Bartonville, but it’s not on my driver’s license.”

Ralph Rather could not be reached for comment.

According to documents obtained in an open records request, election officials began investigating the complaint in May by sending a notice of examination. The couple was given 30 days to respond to the claim that they registered to vote at 409 U.S. Highway 377 South, which is a commercial business.

Alexander said they did not respond to the notice.

DRC/Gary Payne

Ralph and Teresa Rather registered to vote several years ago claiming their home address is 409 U.S. Highway 377 in Argyle. The building is occupied by Capital Title.

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According to Teresa Rather, the notice she received said her vote didn’t count.

“I talked to someone who said I should just go back to the polls and give them my address in November,” Rather said.

On June 16, Alexander canceled the voter registrations for both Ralph and Teresa Rather, sending another notice listing the commercial address as the reason. Again, the couple did not respond, Alexander said.

Teresa Rather’s interest in the Argyle Town Council election first came to light when she formed a specific-purpose political action committee with business partner John Michaels. The two formed Argyle Concerned Citizens for Change to support a three-candidate slate for the Argyle council.

The committee reported spending $18,698 on the race, with another $7,574 listed as still maintained when they submitted additional paperwork dissolving the committee on July 14, according to documents obtained through open records requests in May and July.

At the time of the May 10 election, Argyle had 2,932 registered voters. The committee spent more than $6 per registered voter on the race.

Six contributors were identified on the committee’s campaign finance reports besides Michaels and Rather — Mike and Marie Davis ($250), Terry and Shelia Scott ($200), Kwik Car of Argyle ($150), Jay and Marsha Pellicone ($100), Kevin and Jennifer Sanders ($200) and DEMA Partners ($2,000), a development group based in Hurst.

All three candidates supported by Rather and the committee were elected, ousting two incumbents — longtime council member Jayne Marshall, a retired fraud investigator with the Internal Revenue Service, and Mark Bogosian, an American Airlines pilot.

Teresa Rather said her commercial address was never a problem until she got involved with the political action committee, and someone complained.

“My kids go to Argyle schools,” she said. “Do you really think this is a big deal?”

According to property tax records and voter registration records, Ralph and Teresa Rather had first registered to vote using the address of their Argyle business building before they sold their previous home at 1149 Hickory Hill — also outside town limits. Teresa Rather changed her registration Nov. 9, 2003, and Ralph Rather changed his April 10, 2005.

For the May 10 election, both the Argyle school district and the town of Argyle combined their elections at Town Hall. Some residents coming to Town Hall were eligible to vote only in the school election, while others were eligible to vote in both.

Voter rolls show that Teresa Rather voted April 28, the first day of early voting. Ralph Rather voted April 30. Both Ralph and Teresa Rather used the commercial address when they signed the rolls, Alexander said.

During the first two days of early voting, the election judge failed to mark on the roll whether a voter was provided only a school ballot or both school and town ballots, so no definitive notation exists on the ballot Teresa Rather was provided. But by April 30, election officials began notating the rolls either “A” for school only or “B” for both. Ralph Rather’s entry was notated “B,” showing that he was provided both a school and a town ballot.

Individual voting histories on file with Denton County show that since Teresa Rather registered at the commercial address, she voted in the November 2004 general election, the 2006 primary and primary runoff elections, and the November 2006 general election, in addition to the May 10 election.

Since Ralph Rather registered at the commercial address, he voted in the 2006 primary runoff, the November 2006 general election and the May 10 election.

The last time elections officials turned over evidence of illegal voting to the district attorney’s office was in 2004, Alexander said. That year, Michael A. Greene, a deputy constable in Justice of the Peace Precinct 6, together with his wife, registered to vote from an empty lot in Carrollton.

Alexander said he blocks approximately 15 to 20 voter registrations each year when people attempt to use a commercial address as their domicile. The most common attempts are made from commercial mail centers, but the elections office routinely blocks those addresses.

“When the voter registration comes in and we put it in the computer, it comes up with a big yellow line,” Alexander said.

However, since those voters have not attempted to vote using a commercial address, the county takes no further legal action in those cases, Alexander said.

He’s since blocked 409 Highway 377 South from being used for a voter’s residence.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.