RIO GRANDE CITY – More than a thousand mail-in ballots are yet to be accounted for in Starr County. Voters returned dozens of mail-in ballots they say they didn't ask for.

This comes as the county continues its election fraud investigation.

Voters who received a mail-in ballot by mistake or don't need one anymore can vote in person. They just need to sign an affidavit at the Starr County Elections Administration Office. It's in English and Spanish.

About 150 voters already did this, three days into the early voting period.

Turning in mail-in ballots and requesting to vote in-person is rare. That’s what the Starr County Elections Administrator John Lee Rodriguez told CHANNEL 5 NEWS.

It happened a few times last year, not as much as this year and hardly at all before then, he said. What's different? An ongoing investigation of election fraud within the county.

That formal inquiry resulted in arrests of election workers accused of helping voters request ballots by mail even though they could vote in person.

The Elections Administrations Office sent out 2,057 mail-in ballots. Of those, 518 voters used them. About 150 returned them to vote in-person instead. That means about 1,390 ballots are pending.

Requesting a mail-in ballot when you don't need one is considered fraud. That can result in up to four years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000.