Where Was Greg Abbott During the Voter Suppression Debate?

by: Phillip Martin

Wed Mar 11, 2009 at 02:46 PM CDT

An interesting take from Wayne Slater -- Dallas Morning News columnist and one of the top political writers in the country -- on the voter suppression hearings that took place in the Texas Senate yesterday:

The Senate gallery was peppered Tuesday with people in red T-shirts exuding a certain energy, as if awaiting a carnival. Or a hanging.

[snip]

Everybody was there except the one person Democrats really wanted — Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, the GOP go-to guy on matters of vote fraud.

[snip]

A couple of years ago, Abbott announced there was an “epidemic” of voter fraud in Texas and launched an investigation.

A review found that he prosecuted 26 cases — all against Democrats, mostly blacks or Hispanics. Of those, two-thirds were technical violations in which voters were eligible, votes were properly cast and no vote was changed.

Democrats say that’s not exactly an epidemic, but Republicans say the cases where Abbott did win guilty pleas are evidence vote-fraud is real.

Why wasn't Greg Abbott there? There was a series of discussions about that:

1. First Abbott released a statement saying "the chair (meaning Duncan) decided it woild be inappropriate for the attorney general to be present as a witness in a legislative debate." (Source)

2. Then, during the debate, Senator Duncan said he did not advise Abbott not to show up. (Source)
   
   
3. Then we find out that Senator Duncan sent a memo to the Senators where he said he didn't think Abbott should show up. (Source)

So why didn't Abbott show up? He testified last time around, so the idea that he couldn't play a role in the proceedings is hypocrtiical. I think he didn't want to directly answer questions about his unnecessary "voter fraud" panel: From the Lone Star Project:

What Happened?

Read Anchia's Letter

• Late last week, State Representative Rafael Anchia (HD103 – Dallas) revealed that Greg Abbott had improperly withheld a series of highly suspicious affidavits and letters alleging voter fraud in Hidalgo County during a local municipal election in May of 2008 and the November 2008 General Election.
  
  
• The suspicious documents include four possibly fraudulent affidavits discussing impersonation voting. Three of the affidavits are signed by the same Notary Public and have oddly similar language and phrasing.
  
  
• Both State Representative Rafael Anchia and State Senator Kirk Watson (SD14 – Austin) filed separate formal requests weeks ago calling on the Attorney General to provide them all documents related to complaints and investigations of voter fraud. ( Dallas Morning News, March 7, 2009 )
  
  
• Abbott failed to provide the documents or even notify the Legislators of their existence. Representative Anchia learned about the suspicious documents from sources outside the AG’s office. ( Dallas Morning News, March 7, 2009 )