Nelda Spears confirms her support for Republican Voter Suppression Bill

Thanks for the information. (3.00 / 1)

I'll definitely be casting my vote for Nelda Wells Spears.

I went to pay my overdue vehicle registration last month and I was in and out of the tax office in less than 2 minutes.

That's government that works.

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by: Jobu @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 19:59:08 PM UTC

The Facts (0.00 / 0)

This site seems to simply mirror and echo the Maxey campaign website.  Too bad that site so often has its facts wrong.

Nelda's office is consistently cited as the best tax office in Texas, with the highest voter registration and tax collection rates.  It is a model of administrative efficiency.

I don't think anyone really knows why Maxey is running, but time after time, his nasty, personal, negative attacks on Nelda have proven to be factually inaccurate.  And when his attacks are proven to be lies, there is no admission on his part.

We need leaders with integrity, which is why Nelda must be re-elected.

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by: TeamTexas @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 20:51:57 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

no (3.00 / 1)

You know, I was kind of on the fence and wavering about my support in this campaign.  As is typical with most campaigns, mud gets slung both ways and things get ugly on both sides.  But supporting that bill, as she states on her very own website, is unacceptable.  As Sonia succinctly points out below this and on many other threads, further proof of citizenship requirements are unnecessary and will suppress voter turnout.  Nelda's voter registration numbers that she proudly touts would drop under HB 626 because canvassers would be unable to do voter registration drives on college campuses and at supermarkets.  HB 626, as it was written, was simply a disguised attempt by Republicans to suppress Democratic votes.  No ifs, ands, or buts.

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by: Joe @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 21:21:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

why he's running? (0.00 / 0)

Um, hello- did you even read any of the articles and posts about this issue?

The DEMOCRATIC incumbent Nelda Spears is agreeing with the most horrific REPUBLICAN voter suppression bills. And you have no idea why Maxey is running...

I assume you and Jobu will never complain about Democrats losing statewide again (and we'll hold you to it) because Spears is siding with the forces that are trying to keep Democrats from registering and turning out voters to take back this state.

Sen. Gallegos probably thinks otherwise.  

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by: sos @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 21:22:11 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

OK (0.00 / 0)

She supports the Republican voter suppression bills. That should be the nail-in-the-coffin.

I appreciate that you made the comment 6 minutes after you registered for the site, and I'm guessing you've been reading BOR for a while and felt strongly to state this opinion. So I want you to know I respect what you're saying -- but, you're avoiding the topic of this post: Spears supports the voter suppression bills. I mean -- seriously. How, how, how, how, how is that not the end of her campaign?

Now, a very great man once said that some people rob you with a fountain pen.

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by: Phillip Martin, Progress Texas @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 21:57:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I read that this morning and I am very disappointed (4.33 / 3)

Nelda needs to read that bill a little more closely.  She made it seem like a voter just had to sign a statement swearing they were a citizen to register if they didn't have other required forms of voter ID.  

The current voter registration card already has that.  You check a box, under penalty of perjury, that you are a US Citizen.

What HB626 required a new voter do was go back, presumably to the voter registrar's office, and execute an affidavit of citizenship. That's if they didn't come up in a database match in the SOS's voter registration database. The SOS matches driver's licence nubmers or the last 4 digits of your social security number, if that data is provided. HAVA does not require you to provide that information if you don't have it. You still get registered to vote, but you do have to provide additional forms of identification to vote, like a utility bill etc.

Texas is already a voter identification state.  The process is working now. The alleged fraud rate is so minuscule or statistically insignificant for the millions of votes cast in this state, that it's not even funny.  It's not funny to be wasting so much time and resources on a virtually non-existent problem.

HB626 also required the state (SOS) to create interfaces to other state's databases to prove citizenship.  Never mind that there is no existing database that proves citizenship now - anywhere in the US.

Fiscal note HB626
The SOS would then be required to confirm the birth in the US with all the states and US territories, and would be required to confirm that the naturalization status of naturalized citizens. For those applicants that the SOS could not verify citizenship, the applicants would be required to execute an affidavit stating that the applicant is a US citizen. The bill would exempt from charge by a notary public, a notarized affidavit for proof of citizenship.

Keep in mind we've already seen database match problems, so this could presumably impact lots of voters, not just those who don't have a driver's licence or social security number. A simple clerical error inputing the data into the SOS voter database could cause a challenge.  

So HB626 would create an extra step beyond the registration process. A potential two step registration process. All for what?   We have a bigger election problem in this state in our low voter turnout.  We need to be encouraging people to vote, not making it harder to vote. We have more important uses for taxpayer money to address real needs in our state.  Not these hyped up voter fraud charges.  The fiscal note for this bill was estimated at $21 million dollars.

Estimated Two-year Net Impact to General Revenue Related Funds for HB626, As Engrossed: a negative impact of ($21,237,686) through the biennium ending August 31, 2009.

I would hope that Nelda rethinks her position and retracts her support for that bill.

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by: sonia @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 20:03:43 PM UTC

Both candidates disappointed me today (0.00 / 0)

Nelda's support for the voter ID bill is pretty darn bad. Enough said.

Meanwhile, I got an email from the Maxey campaign, touting his endorsement from the Austin Chronicle. In fact, the Chronicle split, and published competing endorsements for both candidates. The email wasn't technically false, but it sure was misleading.

I'd like a tax assessor who sticks up for voters' rights. I'd also like a tax assessor with a keen sense of fair play. (sigh)

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by: LSadun @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 21:23:34 PM UTC

Standard Practices (3.00 / 1)

Ever since I arrived in Austin, I've seen candidates (rightfully so) use endorsements in their material. They're not obligated to point out who the other one has been endorsed by (why would they?) and shouldn't. That's just pure campaign sense.

Ms. Spears would be totally right to email her list about being endorsed by them as well, and I wouldn't expect her to tell her people that Maxey had been endorsed either.

It may upset those of us who feel politics should be however we think it should, but I wouldn't blame either side for maximizing what helps them. I imagine that Dan Grant and Larry Joe Doherty will do the same thing since they were dual-endorsed.  

Please read the Community Guidelines and How to Rate Comments.

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by: Karl-Thomas Musselman @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 21:29:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Uses and uses (0.00 / 0)

Of course I'd expect both candidates to include the Chronicle among their lists of endorsements. You list your supporters, and you don't mention your opponent's. But sending out emails proclaiming, in big letters, "Glen Maxey earns the endorsement of the Austin Chronicle!" is deceitful. (Grammar nazis would say it isn't even true, since "the endorsement" implies there aren't any others.)

I don't mean to say that one misleading campaign email is as important as the voter suppression bill. Not by a long shot. But a sense of fair play is essential to the job of tax assessor. If people don't trust that their taxes and their voter registration are being handled in a totally neutral manner, we're in big trouble. "Neutral" and "Glen Maxey" don't usually go in the same sentence!

To get my vote, Glen needs to convince me that his damned effective support of partisan causes won't stop him from being a visibly fair tax assessor for everybody. To get my vote, Nelda needs to convince me that she'll protect the rights of all voters. So far, I'm unconvinced on both counts.  

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by: LSadun @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 23:04:41 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Maxey's Qualifications (0.00 / 0)

Looking at Maxey's website, I can't see where he's talking about his qualifications at all.  Does he know the first thing about administration, personnel, management, collections?  

So far, all I've seen him do is attack Nelda -- and a lot of the attacks are very nasty, personal ones that have no place in our party.  Meanwhile, Nelda is running on her record, which is excellent -- as the statistics and reviews from public officials demonstrate.

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by: TeamTexas @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 23:26:30 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

attacks (0.00 / 0)

attacks are very nasty, personal ones that have no place in our party

Yeah, someone should tell that to the Austin American Statesman, lol.

Oh well, it's Texas politics. Not for the weak of heart.  

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by: sos @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 23:36:59 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Maxey wants to avoid a discussion of qualifications (0.00 / 0)

For obvious reasons...

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by: Jobu @ Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 03:48:30 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Regardless of who you support in this race (0.00 / 0)

I am tired of people registering anonymous user names for the sole purpose of trashing Glen Maxey.

You say all you've seen Glen do is attack Nelda.

Well, "TeamTexas", all I've seen you do is attack Glen. And anonymously, at that. Talk about something that has "no place in our party" ...

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by: David Mauro @ Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 04:55:08 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Spears' view on this topic is utterly disqualifying from my perspective. (0.00 / 0)

http://yanezhoustonjordanfortx...

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by: Take Back the Texas Supreme Court @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 21:55:43 PM UTC

very disappointing (0.00 / 0)

Regardless of whom you choose to support, for either side to claim that either opponent is not a good Democrat is absurd.

I hated the voter suppression bill and spoke out against it.  I certainly don't agree with the bill.

But to say that Nelda has chosen to side with the repub party and craddick is ridiculous.

It would be equally ridiculous to say that pro-life Dems "side" with the repub party and Pat Robertson.

I've watched from afar and I'm pretty shocked at the juvenile approach to this race by Maxey's supporters.  You might be able to convince folks that someone else could do a better job, but trying to convince them that nice ol Nelda is a bad person who plays poker with the radical right is laughable.

Please refer to KT's signature.

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by: colin @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 22:43:55 PM UTC

Disagree (0.00 / 0)

I mean -- I don't have to convince you about how bad those voter ID bills were. There's been a mountain of evidence about them.

This is a Democratic Party. This may be the policy issues Democrats agree on the most. Elected officials are chosen to make their own judgments, and in their judgments, they are supposed to decide when to listen to the wishes of their constituents, and when to chart their own course. For Spears to chart her own course on this issue -- to me -- shows that she has a very strange understanding of how she's supposed to exercise that judgment.

Now, a very great man once said that some people rob you with a fountain pen.

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by: Phillip Martin, Progress Texas @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 23:19:08 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

agree with your disagreement (0.00 / 0)

If that is possible.

I clearly agree that this is a bad idea and I'm glad it went down (barely). I certainly don't agree with Spears position on the issue.

But, I still think that saying she loves craddick and repubs is a little silly.  I happen to think that affirmative action, choice and universal health care are core Democratic values...but I have a lot of Dem friends that don't vote for those things in the legislature.  It doesn't make them repubs, even if it makes them wrong.

In a race with very little margin of error, she committed a big one...right before early voting.

Please refer to KT's signature.

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by: colin @ Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 04:41:14 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Response from Nelda Spears (2.00 / 1)

The following statement was just issued by Nelda Spears:

VOTER  UPDATE

My opponent is once again distorting the issues  in an apparent effort to trick you into voting for him.  This time, he  is intentionally conflating a bill heard in the Texas Legislature requiring  citizens to show some form of proof of citizenship (even just an affidavit)  upon registering to vote and a different bill that would also have required  registered voters to show a photo ID in the polling place at the time they  cast their ballots.

My opponent apparently has no shame.   I support having  citizens show some kind of evidence of their citizenship at the time they  register to vote.  My recent comments were about HB 626.  This is  a reasonable safeguard that protects legitimate voters from having their  voice diluted by those who might not be legitimately registered.  But  this is much different than HB 218, which would have required voters who  have already met the I.D.  requirement upon registering from having to  do so again at the polling place, when a valid voter registration card or  other form of accepted identification should be sufficient.

Contrary  to my opponent's repeated lies, I support integrity in our elections but  have never endorsed the Republican bill that was courageously defeated in  the Texas Senate by Sen. Mario Gallegos and other Democrats.  

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by: Justice @ Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 23:41:12 PM UTC

I hate to tell her... (3.00 / 1)

...but if memory serves, Mario Gallegos and the Senate Democrats hated HB 626 just as much as they hated the voter ID bill they ultimately killed with Gallegos' courageous help. And if the bill had ever seen enough votes to get out of the Senate State Affairs Committee, which it didn't, the Republicans would have had two fights on their hands, not just one.

Please note that if you know the way the Senate works, you will also note that the only 3 Democrats on Senate State Affairs -- Van de Putte, Ellis, and Lucio -- wouldn't have been enough votes to keep that bill in committee. Which means some Republicans on the committee didn't like that bill either, and undoubtedly told the chairman so, so it was never called up for a vote.

Moral of the story: Spears supports a voter registration bill even some Senate Republicans probably wanted dead. Jus' sayin'.

LettersFromTexas.com

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by: Harold Cook @ Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 00:02:45 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Tax Collector is Not a Legislative Seat (0.00 / 0)

Nelda doesn't "support" either bill.  That hasn't stopped Maxey from distorting the truth...again.  

But don't get distracted.  This is not a race to elect someone to the Legislature.  This race is about who will manage the $2.5 Billion tax office on which all of our local governments depend.

If folks want a sly political operative in that job, they'll have to vote for Maxey.  Nelda won't claim an abudnance of clever political finesse.

But if folks want to continue to have the best tax office in Texas, they'll have to vote for Nelda Spears.  With the best tax collection and voter registration rates in Texas and award-winning customer service, it ain't broke.

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by: Justice @ Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:36:46 AM UTC

[ Parent ]