As lawmakers and law enforcement officials study ways to curb mail-in voter fraud, they shouldn't overlook the most sinister culprits: candidates and their campaign managers.

Candidates for public office and their top aides must be held accountable for the election abuses that permeate in Dallas County and other parts of Texas.

Like the chiselers they hire to brazenly take advantage of the most vulnerable in our society, unethical office-seekers need to be driven out of politics, via the legal system or public shaming.

The Texas Legislature is close to approving bills that would increase the penalties for mail-in voter fraud directed at the elderly. A proposal has already been approved by the Senate, and a companion bill is expected to be voted out of a House committee as early as Wednesday.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who made voter fraud an issue for the special session occurring in Austin, will sign the legislation into law.

It's hoped that increased penalties for mail-in voter fraud will deter operatives from stealing the votes from the elderly and motivate prosecutors into action.

While more low-level bad guys will face prosecution, election law changes won't work until something is done about the folks who hire them. It's the campaign managers, consultants and candidates who set the market for the crimes.

The ideal scenario would involve campaign managers policing themselves and running their operations with respect for the voters they are courting.

Most of them do. There are consultants and managers who refuse to hire so-called mail-in ballot experts because the chance for abuse is too high.

That doesn't mean politicos don't offer mail-in ballot campaigns. They do, but a clean absentee ballot drive is much different from the seedy stuff that sometimes occurs in southern Dallas.

Here's how an honest mail-in ballot campaign works. An absentee ballot application is mailed to an elderly voter and followed by a telephone call. The voter is asked to return the application to the elections department. When a ballot is returned to the voter, a campaign makes another telephone call to the voter, asking them to vote and put the ballot in the mail.

Some campaigns will make sure voters get assistance, if needed, though most legitimate campaigns conduct the entire process over the phone. No paid operatives handling ballots.

There's nothing wrong with legal campaigning aimed at the elderly or absentee voter. It's like knocking on doors and giving rides to the polls.

The abuse most often occurs when operatives are asked to handle ballots, applications and documents. The most horrendous tactic is paying people by the number of ballots they secure for votes.

A good start to cleaning up the system would be self-imposed bans by candidates on paying absentee voter operatives by the ballot. It's no wonder criminals abuse the system when they are offered petty cash for the number of ballots collected.

In the past, the abuses were severe. Operatives would actually stockpile ballots they collected from the elderly, turning batches in to elections departments on election day. That practice was outlawed more than a decade ago, but hacks still find a way to manipulate the system.

Money is the prime motivator.

Nobody decides to steal votes for the elderly because they are so committed to a candidate. Somebody is paying them, and those are the people who should be exposed and dealt with.

Miguel Hernandez is sitting in the county jail on a charge of illegal voting, accused of taking a West Dallas woman's blank mail-in ballot, filling in a Dallas City Council candidate's name and returning it to the county elections department.

Both candidates in the West Dallas council race where prosecutors say the incident occurred — former council member Monica Alonzo and current council member Omar Narvaez — have denied any connection to Hernandez and have urged tough penalties for anyone found responsible for election fraud.

If the charges are true, Hernandez is either a fanatic who didn't mind the dirty work of low-level politics, or someone connected to a candidate paid him for his effort.

Chances are he got paid.

Authorities identified about 700 questionable mail-in ballots in this year's municipal election.

Hopefully prosecutors will get the bottom of it and reveal how the mail-in ballot scams were financed.

It's like pinching a drug dealer slinging dime bags to get to the kingpin.

If you really want to stop mail-in voter fraud, stop the flow of the money being paid to support activity.

Get the real shysters, not just their pawns.