The Texas Democratic Party won a major fight last Friday by forcing Leo Vasquez and the Harris County Voter Registration office to admit to using voter suppression tactics. Additionally, Rep. Scott Hochberg played a key role in unearthing the details about how the office was rejecting tens of thousands of voter registration ballots. (Read more about those details below the fold...)
TDP Chair Boyd Richie released the following statement about the settlement:
“From my first days as Chairman, the Texas Democratic Party has worked vigilantly in both the legal and legislative process to protect Texans’ right to participate fully in our democracy. The Texas Democratic Party will monitor the current Harris County Voter Registrar’s practices with that same vigilance to make sure the terms of this agreement are carried out properly.
“It’s a shame that the Texas Democratic Party has been forced to go to court time and again to do what our state and local officials should be doing – protect the right to vote. As a great Texas Democrat, President Lyndon B. Johnson said in 1965: ‘It is wrong--deadly wrong--to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.’”
The lawsuit settled a number of lies that Vazquez, Paul Bettencourt, and other Harris County Republicans had been pushing for months. As the Lone Star Project explains:
Earlier this year, in a hostile and dishonest op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, Leo Vasquez, responded to Lone Star Project reports detailing corruption within his office by calling Texas Democratic Party legal action a ”nuisance lawsuit” with “no merit” and saying that the “partisan attacks” were led by the Lone Star Project. (Source: Houston Chronicle, 6/16/2009) However, Vasquez was forced to acknowledge in the settlement that the TDP lawsuit was based on facts that showed the Tax Assessor's office had engaged in improper behavior regarding the handling of voter registration applications and the handling of provisional ballots.
Vasquez would not have agreed to the settlement if he did not believe that there was a strong chance that he would lose the lawsuit and more corruption would be uncovered.
Here's a look at the lies Leo told -- and the truth he finally admitted in the lawsuit settlement:
Leo's Lie
The Facts
“It is also my highest priority and the goal of the employees of the tax office to register every eligible voter in Harris County.”
24.4% of those applying to register to vote in Harris County were denied registration in time to vote in the 2008 elections. (Source: TX Secretary of State and Harris County Voter Registrar)
“These attacks are nothing more than partisan witch hunts”
As part of a court settlement, Vasquez acknowledged widespread voter registration problems detailed by the Lone Star Project. Vasquez was forced to accept more than a dozen changes insisted upon by Democrats to protect the rights of Harris County voters. (Source: Houston Chronicle, 10/23/2009)
Commenting upon Ed Johnson, Vasquez said, “There is nothing illegal about this activity, and it has nothing to do with his [Johnson’s] official duties with the tax office.”
While refusing to fire Johnson outright, Vasquez has acknowledged the Johnson is unfit to serve as Associate Voter Registrar and has reassigned him within the Tax Office. (Source: Houston Chronicle, 8/1/2009)
Responding to the Lone Star Project’s call to fire Ed Johnson for working as a paid Republican campaign consultant while also on the County payroll, Vasquez said, “This assertion is preposterous …”
Vasquez acknowledged the obvious conflict of interest and, as part of the legal settlement, was forced to initiate a policy prohibiting outside work as a partisan political consultant. (Source: Vasquez Settlement, 10/23/2009)
I think everyone should congratulate the Texas Democratic Party for taking the lead on work that should have been done by Harris County elected officials -- but was not, for obviously corrupt reasons.
More on the history of this story below the fold...
Republican State Representative Dwayne Bohac -- who is a member of the House Elections Committee and one of the key champions of voter ID suppression legislation in the Texas legislature -- has on his payroll for the company Campaign Data Systems a man named Ed Johnson, the associate voter registrar at the Harris County Tax Assesor Collectors office.
Here's the whole story from Off the Kuff -- with original reporting also from KHOU TV in Houston:
As you know, there was a lawsuit filed against Paul Bettencourt and the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office over allegations of illegal mishandling of provisional ballots in the past November election. That suit was later expanded to include allegations of voter disenfranchisement by Bettencourt’s office. According to KHOU, some mighty interesting facts have come out so far in the deposition phase.
“This is as blatant a case of election corruption that I have seen,” said Matt Angle of the Lone Star Project, a Democrat activist group.
The Lone Star Project’s complaint revolves around Ed Johnson.
Johnson is the associate voter registrar at the Harris County Tax Assessor Collectors office, but according to state documents, that’s just his day job. Johnson is also a paid director of a small company that provides voter data to Republican candidates for office. That company, Campaign Data Systems, billed at least $140,000 in 2008.
Campaign Data Systems happens to be owned by Republican State Rep. Dwayne Bohac, who also happens to be one of the big pushers of voter ID bills. Johnson testified before the Senate about supposed instances of vote fraud. He tells the Republicans what they want to hear in the guise of a nonpartisan election official, while being on their payroll. Nice little scam they’ve got going there, no? I think we all have a better idea now why State Reps. Garnet Coleman and Ana Hernandez called for appointed Tax Assessor Leo Vasquez’s resignation over Johnson’s (and George Hammerlein’s) testimony, and it makes Vasquez’s response look that much weaker.
In a move straight out of the Karl Rove playbook, a story has leaked the day before the Texas Senate may consider the voter ID legislation that there could be a possible "voter fraud plot" in Harris County. A story from a local TV station in Houston states that Harris County Tax Accessor Collector and avid Republican Paul Bettencourt has uncovered an alleged "voter fraud plot." From KPRC in Houston:
A plot to steal dozens of votes with a non-existent address has been uncovered, officials told KPRC Local 2 Wednesday. Harris County Tax Assessor Paul Bettencourt said it was obvious to him that several voter registration applications were fraudulent. Bettencourt said the applications were mailed from El Paso...
Bettencourt said voter fraud cases can be hard to make, but the Harris County District Attorney's Office recently successfully prosecuted a case.
Doesn't the fact that Bettencourt caught these prove that no additional voter ID legislation is necessary, and that sufficient laws already exist to catch any fraud?
To review: some mysterious applications from El Paso, which will take forever to determine their origin, show up the day before the voter ID debate.
This isn't a question of voter fraud. It's a question of what Republican operative sent these mysterious applications in.
