Rep. Scott Hochberg's bill, HB 1457, which would have given authority to the Secretary of State to allow for corrections of obvious typos by voter registration clerks when matching voter registrations to the DPS drivers license file, has been vetoed by Gov. Rick Perry. Each year it is estimated that tens of thousands of valid voter registration applications are denied because of clerical error.
Understandably, Gov. Perry isn't all that interested in voters being able to register to vote given his strong support for Voter Suppression legislation. But in a hint of irony, his veto message of HB 1457... contains a clerical error. Hat tip to Quorum Report.
House Bill No. 1457 would require the secretary of state to develop a system for accepting voter registration applications when the information provided by the voter does not match the indentifying information for that individual in the records of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) or other state agencies.
Cross-Posted at Project Vote's Voting Matter's Blog Weekly Voting Rights News Update
by Erin Ferns
Last week we wrote about how partisan-fueled voter fraud rumors are leading election reform debates, potentially changing the way many Americans vote in future elections. With at least one state swiftly moving a bill to require all voter applicants to present proof of citizenship before registering to vote, and another strongly supporting the passage of voter ID, the threat of voter disenfranchisement looms ahead.
The 2008 presidential election was an inspiration for many citizens to take part in the American democratic process, including first-time voter and convicted felon Eric Stephen Willems of Minnesota. Unfortunately, that vote cost Willems, who was on probation, a trip back to jail, according to the Associated Press last week.
KHOU-TV in Houston last night aired a powerful story about Republican voter suppression tactics in Harris County, tactics being carried out by GOP Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt.
Valid voter registration certificates are being wrongly and illegally rejected by the registrar. Meaningless typos, nicknames or spellings that don't match a spurious comparison to a driver license database, any excuse is being used to reject the voting applications of full U.S. citizens whose Constitution guaranteed them the right to vote. Why? Because a few Republican officials fear these voters are about to vote against them. Rather than try to persuade them, to win their favor by adopting policies that might appeal to them, the GOP is, in Houston, in Texas, and around the country, conducting the most massive national voter disenfranchisement campaign in history.
Republicans have been pressing for sweeping voter purges in many states. They have also fought to make it harder to enroll new voters. Voting experts say there could be serious problems at the polls on Nov. 4.
It is an easy thing to stir the anger of progressive Texans over this issue. They are rightly outraged. But I have many Republican friends and family members who just don't know this is going on. Though we disagree on many, many, things, not one of them that I've spoken to condones the denial of a citizen's right to vote. That right is the very essence of democracy. That's so fundamental it sounds like a superficial truism that should need to further argument or justification.
Voter suppression is not new. Back in 1982, Republicans were embarrassed when a so-called "felons list" was sent by the GOP Secretary of State to local voter registrars with instructions to purge the names from voter rolls. The list was laughably inaccurate. A Democratic candidate for the House with no criminal record whatsoever turned up on the list. A humiliated SOS dropped the whole thing.
In the past, some have dressed up as police or border patrol to intimidate would-be voters at the polls. Unfounded challenges to voters have been raised at the polls. Minority voting precincts have been shortchanged on voting machines and ballots in hopes that long lines will discourage voting. Phone calls are made into Democratic precincts giving wrong voting locations in inaccurate instructions.
Next session, many Republican leaders hope to pass a bureaucratic, duplicative and unnecessary voter identification requirement whose only purpose is to make it harder for U.S. citizens to vote.
I don't think BOR has many GOP readers. So I hope you will take the time to pass this message or a message of your own to Republican friends, neighbors, family members and colleagues who might be among the uninformed on this issue.
Some details from the KHOU story below will shock them. I believe we need their help to protect the right to vote in Texas. We can yell at them, or make them allies on this issue. I think the latter will be far more effective. We don't need to use incendiary language to sanctimoniously prove our own commitment to voting rights. We need others to join us in the fight to protect that right.
Just a quick post to note the total voter registration number that we ended up with here in Austin. Here's the progress made over the year.
July 15: 566,589
Sept 30: 581,951
Oct 20: 609,224
That's an increase of 24,275 registered voters compared to the 2004 general election. While there was around 50,000+ voters added to the roles this year including the primary, the attrition of the voter rolls in Travis because of suspense voters expiring makes the numbers seem less impressive. It's a constant battle to keep up with the voter roles and one of the best ways to maintain it is to have an active electorate that is keeping their registration current.
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.
Monday: 16,174 (includes UDems)
Since May 10th: 30,869
And according to the county, with all of the mail and other drop offs, their total for the last day is a mindboggling 32,246 voter registrations. As KXAN reported...
About 14,920 voter registration applications were received on Oct. 6 and on Oct. 7, 17,326 were brought to the registration office.
Of the total received, about 9,000 came from volunteer deputy registrars and 8,000 came in the mail. The two day total of 32,246 is record breaking.
Remember, Oct 7th is the day after the deadline when most of the until Midnight stuff was delivered. That 32,246 number is probably even higher when you count the mail that arrived yesterday and today but was still postmarked on Monday- potentially 35,000 effective registrations received as part of the 24 hour last day effort.
That sure blows our 12,000 last day effort from 2004 out of the water.
Over 1.3 million new low-income, minority, and young Americans registered nationwide!
Yesterday, as voter registration deadlines passed in most states, Project Vote, the nation's leading nonpartisan voter participation organization, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the country's largest community organization, held a news conference to announce the completion of a joint nonpartisan voter registration drive, which has succeeded in helping over 1.3 million Americans register to vote. To listen to the conference in its entirety, please click here
Having just got home at 3 AM (yes, ready to lead, pick up the phone, from day one, etc) from the 24 hour Voter Registration marathon at 50 locations across Austin, some early reports of our successes are coming in. Major kudos to Katherine Haenschen, Glen Maxey, Joe Hamill, Laura Hernandez, Mike Litt, Ian Davis, Zack Hall, Matt Glazer, and lord knows how many volunteers who made this work.
From the "Hook the Vote" coalition at the University of Texas, led principally by the University Democrats though it was a broad based coalition, the official count was 5,659 registered students yesterday alone (as I twittered just after midnight when we broke out in a chorus of Bohemian Rhapsody on the steps of Gregory Plaza). That's truly amazing and tops the 3,000 one day record at UT we set on the last day to register in 2004 (back when I was an officer in the good old days).
Even more amazing, was that many people were registered even after the University Democrats struck an agreement to have UT put a registration card in every mailbox at the start of the semester and have Voter Registration part of the RA check in. AND even after nearly ever apartment complex in the city had voter registration packets dropped on their doors via the coordinated campaign in the last six weeks.
When I left the collection center tonight, over 15,584 voter registration cards had been counted so far from the 50 voter reg sites today. There are still some of those sites out and will be added to the total tomorrow so that number will grow in the next 24 hours. That's not counting estimated 10,000 cards the Tax Office (which is in charge of maintaining the voter rolls) received independently via mail today and not counting any of the registration cards that were postmarked today and will arrive over the next couple of days there which are valid registrations.
I'll update everyone as more solid numbers come in, but needless to say, Monday was the single largest voter registration day in the history of Travis County.
P.S. Yesterday I independently paid for a Google AdWords campaign targeted to Austin pushing people towards the Voter Registration Location post. I'll publish the highly successful results of that campaign later today.
You can register to vote at any one of the nearly 50 locations that will be open 7am-Midnight on Monday (TODAY) to register at, which includes every Blockbuster Video and Thundercloud subs in the greater Austin area, as well as Guero's, the MT Supermarket, Clementine's Coffee, Thunderbird Coffee, City Market on Airport, Freebird's at Hancock Center, the Travis County Tax Office, and University Co-op at UT.
Katherine reminds us that now is your last chance to register to vote in Texas!
