Former Chambers Co. candidate accused of election fraud by falsely claiming a canceled election

CHAMBERS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — A Chambers County man is in jail, accused of election fraud.

According to the sheriff, he sent out notices about a canceled city council election in Beach City.

The problem? The election was never canceled.

It happened in Beach City, a city with a population of just over 3,000.

“In small elections in this state, one, two, and five votes make a huge difference,” Chambers County Clerk Heather Hawthorne said. “When you have somebody trying to manipulate that system, it can really throw off results.”

It all started back in October 2023.

“We were alerted by several constituents that a suspicious document was floating around via email, via mailboxes, that a local election held back in November was canceled,” she said. “There were dates that had been blacked out off of an old cancellation notice from this local entity that was from several years ago.”

If you look closely at the order she provided, you’ll see it’s an old order of cancellation.

The dates and the secretary’s signature appear to be blacked out with a marker.

And, because it’s an outdated order, the candidates on it are outdated, too.

“It’s very important to me that anybody that tries to mess with the Texas elections need to be held accountable for that,” she said.

In fact, Hawthorne’s husband is Sheriff Brian Hawthorne. They live in Beach City, too.

“The suspect had been kind of named by some of the people who were victims of it,” Sheriff Hawthorne said. “Most all of us knew him. A number of our county commissioners knew him. I knew him as a sheriff. I knew that he had run for office years back in that same position.”

The sheriff said Kyle Diamond was identified based on multiple home surveillance videos.

Diamond was arrested on Thursday and charged with election fraud.

“If in doubt, call. Call our office,” Clerk Hawthorne said. “Because that’s the way that not only can we make sure there’s no misinformation, but also track down anything that seems irregular and track down the source.”

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