TEXAS: Zul Mohamed, Convicted of 106 Counts of Voter Fraud, Running for Mayor

Zul Mohamed pleaded guilty to 106 felony counts of voter fraud involving forged mail-in ballot applications. He is now a candidate for mayor in Carrollton, Texas.

How is a convicted felon (for mail in ballot fraud, no less) allowed to run for office?

He pleaded guilty to voter fraud. Now he’s running to be mayor of Carrollton

Zul Mohamed was convicted for requesting mail-in ballots without authorization during a failed run for Carrollton mayor in 2020.

By Angela Mathew, Dallas News, April 2, 2026

In 2020, Zul Mohamed, who was running for mayor of Carrollton, requested mail-in ballots for city residents without their knowledge to a P.O. box registered using a fake driver’s license and student ID.

Since then, Mohamed pleaded guilty to 106 felony charges related to voter fraud, was convicted by a jury in Denton County and sentenced to prison.

He began his four-year sentence in December 2024 but was released on bond about a month later to appeal his felony convictions, according to Denton County jail records. Oral arguments in the case were heard Wednesday morning at the 7th Court of Appeals in Amarillo.

Now, Carrollton residents will see Mohamed’s name on their ballots again come the city’s mayoral election on May 2. Mohamed is challenging incumbent Steve Babick, who was elected mayor in 2022. In Texas, municipal elections are nonpartisan, so candidates do not declare affiliation to a particular political party. The deadline for a candidate to be removed from the ballot, Feb. 20, has passed.

Some are questioning why Mohamed is allowed on the ballot, given that convicted felons are not allowed to run for office in Texas until they’ve been pardoned. Was his application illegal? A procedural mistake? It all comes down to the meaning of the word “final.”

Candidate qualifications
In Texas, candidates for public office must be U.S. citizens, 18 or older, registered to vote in the district they are running in and must not have been finally convicted of a felony.

According to a 2004 memo from the Texas secretary of state’s office, those finally convicted of felonies are not eligible to register to vote. But a conviction on appeal is not considered a final felony conviction, the memo said. Accordingly, Mohamed registered to vote in January 2026 while his appeal was ongoing and checked a box on his ballot application to the city that said that he was not finally convicted of a felony.

Even if Mohamed’s status was in a grey area, the city would have to accept a candidate’s application on face value, because the secretary of state is in charge of elections.

Continued……