A case of "legal" voter fraud.
As I've posted in the past, I am a precinct judge for my voting precinct. This is my first foray into organized politics. I was required to attend a class last weekend to train me on the care and feeding of the electronic voting machines that Harris County uses. Before the class started (I was very early) I spoke with a guy that said he was Precinct Judge for a precinct in the Montrose Area. When I mentioned to him that my Precinct was so republican that I have been unable to find a democrat to serve as an Assistant Judge, he commented that his Spanish speaking clerk actually lived up in my area, but maintained a mailing address in his precinct for the express purpose of being able to vote there. What galls me is that not only does he know about this and condones it enough to put her on his payroll in violation of his oath of office to preserve the sanctity of the voting process, but the way the law reads, she can get away with it by merely stating she INTENDS to live there at some future date. This is a clear loophole in election law tht allows people to basically pick and choose where they would like to vote in order to prevent thier vote from being overwhelmed in thier true home precinct. I've reported this to both the Republican Party and to Beverly Kaufman's office. Tom Moon, in Mrs. Kaufman's office explained that while he sympathized with me and agreed that it was far from ethical conduct, it was not specifically against the law. GRRRRR!!!!
posted by Rorschach at
10/31/2005 08:44:00 AM
12 Comments:
And you wonder why the liberal democrats abhor any new laws or regulations that would attempt to make the election process more honest and harder to cheat.
The liberals constantly scream about how Bush "stole" the elections in 2000 and 2004, yet 90% of the time there is any documented voter fraud it involves democratic officials, voulnteers, or fraudunlent voters that vote for democrats.
(FYI, you've been Malkinized)
You have to show ID to cash a check, but you don't have to show ID to vote...
Asking for ID to cash a check is good business...asking for ID to vote is discrimination / akin to a poll tax / infringes on right to vote?
The only voter fraud that has been proven or seen an indictment has been conducted by the Democrats in either 2000 or 2004. I challenge any lib to bring forth documented proof of even one instance of vote fraud by conservatives...we don't have to cheat. We vote...
You should follow up on what she means by "maintains a mailing address"... because if it's just a p.o. box at FedExKinkos, it would be a clear violation (as there would be no way she "intended to live there in the future").
Of course, I'm not sure that I see the big problem with her voting elsewhere... keeps her from offsetting your vote in your precinct.
I live in Kingwood, just outside Houston city limits, but inside Harris County. Because of the annex a few years back, we enjoy the lame city of Houston services, but aren't allowed to vote in the Mayoral election. Talk about taxation without representation. I may just have to take advantage of this "loophole" so I can get my Republican vote counted in Houston. :)
Like many parts of the country. Laws are made to protect the rights of voters. When the officials running it make their own rules to change an election it is called Every vote must count even if it is the third or fourth vote by the same person.
www.soundpolitics.com is a great site for what is happening in Washtington state. Just discovered. Voters who were not registered and had absentee ballots maked to not count were opened and counted just a day or two before the final count. Because the election was too close and the database was doctored to say that these people were registered 2 monthes after the election. There are those that will go to any extreme to keep their party in power.
Jason, he was actually rather specific on that. It would seem that she is using her son's place of residence as the mail drop.
For those of you coming from Michelle Malkin's site, welcome!
A little bit of explanation is warranted, you see the Montrose area of Houston is very Gay. It is the San Francisco of the Houston area. Very Liberal as well.
Texas is about to vote on a constitutional ammendment banning Gay Marriage. This puts that sort of shinanigans into a little different context.
Dunno if you remember, but this quirk of Texas law cropped up many years back, and was lampooned in the Doonesbury comic strip. It was a result of Bush the Elder maintaing a 'residence' in a Houston hotel suite.
Trudeau, the author, posted a clip-out coupon in a Sunday strip to be used to mail to the Texas Secretary of State declaring your intention to eventually reside in Texas, thereby making anyone who applied a legal Texas voter.
You'd think our congresscritters would change that, but that's our lege for ya!
I remembered the hotel thing, but I didn't remember Trudeau's little snark. (Doonesbury always pissed me off so I never read it much.)
I think that this is a shame. For a while, I thought that the whole American electoral system is free form fraud. This is a proof that a lot of things has to be done to make the election results credible.
The electoral system is RELATIVELY free of fraud, but only relatively. We still have armys of dead people voting straight democrat (dead people seem to be one of the most consistent demographics to vote straight ticket democrat, I have to wonder why....), and illegal aliens using other peoples SSN's and names and checking the box on the voter registration card saying they are citizens and elgible to vote. MOST of us poll workers do our damnedest to keep the process clean and honest, but there are always a few bad apples...
even so, I would challenge any other country on the planet to have more free and less corrupt elections than we in the US do.
I actually found it rather amusing that the election worker pins that we were given were manufactured in China, one of the LEAST democratic coutries in the world!
For your benefit, I would like to clarify state law regarding residence. The issue of residence for voter registration purposes (or for candidacy) is based on the individuals attestation in a legal affidavit, such as a voter registration application or a candidate's application for placement on a ballot. The clerk in question cannot maintain a mailing address as you must have a physical location corresponding to your registration. P.O. Boxes are not sufficient for establishing residency in a precinct/jurisdiction. It is difficult from an election administration standpoint. Election officials are instructed to ask each voter to verify whether or not the voter registration address is their correct address before being admitted to vote. I hope this is helpful. Feel free to contact me at dbeirne@cco.hctx.net for additional questions.
David Beirne
Director of Public Affairs
Office of Harris County Clerk, Beverly Kaufman
David, perhaps I was unclear, this was not a P.O. box, it was a physical residence of her son to which she maintained as her mailing address for voting puroses. As I stated, I spoke with Tom Moon about this and he agreed that it was unethical but not specifically illegal. I am aware of the requirement to ask if it is the voter's correct address, as I stated, I am a trained election official and have served as both an election judge and an alternate in the last two election cycles. She and her election judge took an oath to keep the election process pure. In my estimation both violated that oath and have committed voter fraud.
In the State of Texas, your legal voting residence is wherever you say it is. All you GOPers out there had better start buttressing up your glass houses, as Bush the Elder legally claimed a room at the Houstonian as his voting residence when elected President. And lets not forget the unconstitutional GOP ticket in 2000, when Bush the Younger and his VP choice Cheney were neighbors in the Highland Park area of Dallas, violating the constitutional prohibition against both nominees being residents of the same state.
Oh, and as for that Spanish-speaker serving as a clerk in the Montrose precinct? The Texas Election Code requires that a precinct election official be a registered voter in the county where the precinct is located. They don't have to actually reside in that specific precinct.
Ahh, I love the crunch of shattered glass under my feet...
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