A voting problem left more than 1,500 local ballots off the Nov. 2 election canvass, a problem the Tom Green County Elections Office said would not have changed the outcomes but which it has reported to the Texas Secretary of State’s Office and local political leaders.
The problem resulted partly from a mobile ballot box getting left behind at one of the precincts during early voting, said Vona McKerley, the elections administrator.
“Once we realized it was something to do with early voting, we realized one of the mobile ballot boxes was missing,” McKerley said. “We found a shelf that had our training equipment, and somehow that piece of equipment had gotten set on those shelves.”
[...]
“I take full responsibility that this has happened,” McKerley said. “We were under no obligation to let anybody know, but because our office aims for integrity, we let people know that this happened and that we will try to find ways that this never happens again.”
Personally -- I don't really care. Mistakes happen. No election outcomes were changed by the discovery of the missing ballots, and this woman appears to have done everything she can to take full responsibility and announce a problem she probably could have just tried to cover up. I applaud her honor and integrity on the matter.
But in the upcoming legislative session, Republicans are going to push -- and most likely pass -- voter ID legislation. They will dehumanize Democrats and Hispanics for cheating the system. For Republicans, a granddaughter helping her grandmother vote can constitute voter fraud in the right circumstances. They will choose cases involving a single misplaced ballot and pontificate for hours about how that single ballot could have led to the end of democracy as we know it. So when they do, kindly remind Republicans that a Republican elections administrator lost over 1,500 ballots for an entire month, and nobody is persecuting her or claiming she was trying to steal an election or demanding drastic new laws to increase government control in order to over-correct a simple human error.
Reason and sensibility is one of our only advantages we'll have in the next seven months. Keep this story in your back pocket, Democrats.
Back in 2005, Attorney General Greg Abbott announced with a flourish a rash of arrests in South Texas on various counts of voter fraud. These arrests, some of which were announced while the Lege was debating a voter ID bill, were cited as evidence by Abbott of an “epidemic”, for which voter ID was naturally the solution. Many of these cases ultimately wound up being dismissed, with the last batch in Hidalgo County getting dropped last week.
Despite the fanfare, nearly all the charges have been dismissed five years later.
What was once trumpeted across the state as one of the premier examples of the “epidemic of voter fraud” plaguing Texas polls evaporated even as debate over the divisive reform measures it helped spawn continues.
See here, here, and here for some background. One thing that’s been true in all of the cases Abbott has pushed is that they involved mail in ballots, which as I’ve observed would be unaffected by any legislation that required photo ID to vote in person. Abbott and his allies, of course, never drew that distinction, since the purpose of the voter ID legislation that keeps getting pushed in the Lege isn’t about stopping the kind of voter fraud that actually happens, it’s about making it harder for certain people to vote. In the end, even the fraud cases that Abbott claimed to have found turned out to be a whole lot of nothing. It’s no surprise to me.
Thankfully, Texans have a much better choice than Abbot on the ballot. Barbara Ann Radnofsky is challenging Abbott for the AG spot this November. Last week was her turn in the Texas Democratic Party's "Meet the Statewides" campaign -- a great series that highlights every statewide candidate with a video, op-ed, issue piece, biography and more. Here's the latest from Radnofsky and the TDP:
Recent studies show that a more diverse electorate turned out last November, including historically underrepresented young and minority voters. Since the election, Republican operatives have continued to use the specter of voter fraud to loosen regulations on voter suppression activities while pushing policies to make voting more difficult for the crop of new voters.
As several states enter critical phases in their legislative sessions, the debate for one of the most controversial election reforms continues to dominate headlines and legislative hearings. This year, more than 26 states introduced legislation to go above and beyond federal election law relating to voter ID, despite near consensus among voting rights advocates that it hurts the process far more than it helps. Last week, the hysteria around voter ID reached an all time high in six states, evoking public concern from advocates and citizens alike.
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:
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)
Then, during the debate, Senator Duncan said he did not advise Abbott not to show up. (Source)
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:
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 )
Where was Greg Abbott yesterday? Why was he hiding -- and will he be forced to testify before the House?
The Houston Chronicle has become a gift that keeps on giving good news for Democrats in the Houston area.
Today's lead story:
"Except for Emmett, Poll Sees Dem Sweep."
Judge Emmett is ahead because he and Houston's Mayor Bill White worked well together in addressing Hurricane Ike's aftermath. He is likable and folks trust him.
The surprising and great news is that Harris County's Democratic judicial candidates are in a dead heat tie with Republicans.
Voters favored Democratic candidates over Republican candidates by 7 percentage points in elections for county leadership jobs, except in the county judge's race, where Emmett has a 13-point lead over Democrat David Mincberg, according to the survey. Sixteen percent of the respondents were undecided or said they lean toward neither party's entry.
The number 7 also popped up specifically in the race for district attorney; Democrat C.O. Bradford ran 7 percentage points ahead of Republican Pat Lykos in the poll, conducted Monday through Wednesday as early voting began for the Nov. 4 election.
The poll results indicate tough years lie ahead for the GOP. This is absolutely drop dead fabulous news considering it was not long ago when Karl Rove and Tom Delay hatched their Texas Permanent Republican Majority scheme. We are now stuck with the consequences manufactured by these two Republican low life crooks.
Prosser went to the polling place at Randall's near Ben White and Manchaca in South Austin. She says a nicely dressed man in his 30's, clipboard in hand, was stopping people on the way in asking if they support Barack Obama. He then gave erroneous voting instructions.
"He was clearly letting younger people walk by him and he was pulling aside older women," Prosser said.
Prosser says the man was telling people to select both a straight party ballot, and vote for Obama.
"The instructions he's giving them will cancel their vote for their candidate and he's deliberately giving misinformation," Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvior said.
After an election judge confronted him the man left in an older model red Chevy Impala that witnesses say was covered in republican stickers.
Texas voters -- you have to stop this. You have to be vigilant at polling places, and if you see anyone spreading misinformation, report him or her immediately.
Texas Republicans know they are in trouble this election. Don't let them wreck trouble at the polls.
This has been a very long election cycle that started almost two years ago. As an outside observer, while cruising alongside this very long and winding road in politics, I have to say I have learned an awful lot about so many things. I have seen inspirational and electrifying candidates and I have witnessed some mighty disingenious and dishonest ones.
The political pundits informed me about their notions of political history and demographics. I did not know another state of Alabama existed between Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania. Nor did I know New Hampshire is the Alabama of New England. I think it was Joe Scarborough who informed me about the coastal regions of Alabama, Mississippi and some of northwestern Florida. This area is known as The Redneck Riviera.
I had to scratch my head a few times when Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan would refer to working class "ethnic whites" in the northeastern U.S. Then my memory took me back to a 1970's sitcom called All in the Family whose central character was Archie Bunker, a bigoted white working class guy who lived in Queens, NY. Archie must be the guy they are talking about, I thought. Archie referred to his fictional Polish-American son-in-law as "Meat Head" and "Pollock." He had other choice names for his daughter and son-in-law's ethnically and/or racially mixed friends as well. The creator of All in the Family had intended for the show to be a comical satire but this was lost on much of the viewing public.
I never knew a place like Wasilla existed nor did I know there is fringe political independent parties scattered across the U.S. from Wasilla, Alaska to Georgia (that would be U.S. Georgia) that want to secede from the U.S.
I learned a lot about narratives, closing the deal, pie, orange juice, coffee, hair styles, make up, gender, age, one's disposition, mavericks, mavericky, SNL, non-mavericks, a family in Texas who are the true Mavericks, Joe Six Pack and Joe the plumber who is worried about the 250K he saved to buy his boss's plumbing company. Since I have a brother-in-law in Ohio who is a plumber I called him to ask if he had socked away 250K in his piggy bank. Karl the real plumber in Ohio asked me if I was on drugs. Next I learned that Joe is not a plumber and Joe's first name is Sam. I also learned that there is a pastor in Alaska who will perform witch exorcisms. I learned the straight talk express alternates between a virtual hate talk express and/or lying express, depending upon on McCain's polling numbers and his and his campaign mangers' mood swings or the media spin cycles.
John Cornyn would seek to be another George Bush in trying to manipulate voter registration as he along with George Bush and the Republican Supreme Court, did in the 2000, 2004 and 2006 elections.
Most Americans know George Bush basically stole the 2004 election and used Alberto Gonzales and the Justice Department, which became a wing of Bush's White House, made false and fraudulent voter fraud allegations.
We spend a lot of time in these news updates showing how charges of voter fraud are used to discredit voter participation efforts and prime the pump for voter suppression efforts, such as the passage of voter ID bills, pushing for proof of citizenship, engaging in draconian voter purge efforts, and imposing sever restrictions on voter registration drives. We have also spent a lot of time carefully delineating the politics behind these efforts, starting with our March 2007 report The Politics Of Voter Fraud and continuing on in these diaries to name but two venues.
