Greg Abbott's fraudulent attack on 'voter fraud'

Thank you, Matt Angle and The Lone Star Project. Even though the graph below breaks my columns, I'm going to leave it as is. You can see the entire chart at the link in the preceding.

Texas AG Wastes Crime Fighting Funds on Ineffective Biased Program
Abbott Program Targets Seniors, Minorities and Democrats

With great fanfare last year, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott boasted about establishing an aggressive voter fraud unit to enforce Texas election laws and stop illegal voting. Kicking off the effort, Abbott said, “In Texas, an epidemic of voter fraud is infesting the electoral process, and it’s time we rooted it out.” (Source: Texas AG Helping Stamp Out Voter Fraud in Texas)

To pay for the project, Abbott and Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry decided to divert part of $1.4 million in federal funds obtained through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program, more informally called “Byrne Grants.” These federal Byrne Grant funds would otherwise be used entirely to fight serious violent crimes against Texas citizens. Republican Secretary of State Roger Williams joined the act by agreeing to “refer” allegations of irregular election activity to Abbott.

Now, almost a year later, all Abbott, Perry and Williams have done with their high profile, high dollar effort is indict about a dozen senior citizens – most of them African American or Hispanic - and all of them Democrats.

• A total of only 40 ballots are in question.
• In only one instance, is it alleged that anyone other than a legal, qualified voter cast a ballot.
• In every other instance, the Attorney General is using a loophole in the Texas election law to prosecute seniors for the simple act of assisting other seniors in casting their mail-in ballot.
• Moreover, the materials designed by Abbott clearly “cue” those election officials to scrutinize African American voters more closely than others.

Crime Fighting Funds Diverted for Failed Abbott Program
According to the U.S. Justice Department, federal Byrne Grants are intended to help states combat serious crimes such as drug trafficking, cyber crimes, child sexual abuse and child pornography. An eight-page Department of Justice document titled “Byrne Formula Purpose Areas” describes 29 specific areas of law enforcement and crime prevention that qualify for Byrne Grant assistance. There is no specific mention or reference to voter fraud or election law enforcement anywhere in the DOJ document. (Source: DOJ - Byrne Formula Purpose Areas) However, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, with the approval of Governor Rick Perry, has dipped heavily into a $1.4 million federal Byrne Grant crime fighting fund to concentrate on voter fraud rather than violent crime prevention and enforcement. (Source: Texas AG Helping Stamp Out Voter Fraud in Texas)

Minority Democratic Seniors Targeted and Prosecuted
To date, it appears that less than a dozen indictments have been handed down as a result of Abbott’s enforcement efforts. Over 4 million votes are normally cast in a Texas election. Of these, only about 40 actual ballots, less than .001 percent, are in question. Most disturbing, the individuals Abbott is prosecuting are mostly African American or Hispanic, senior citizens and Democrats. If voter fraud is in fact an “epidemic” in Texas, it is worth noting that Abbott, Perry and Williams have chosen to prosecute only a few violators, and virtually all of them are minority senior Democrats.

Name	County	Sex	Age	Race	# of Ballots in Question	Voting History
Josefina Marinas Suarez	Nueces	F	44	Hispanic	1	Unknown
Willie J. Ray	Bowie	F	67	African American	7	Democrat
Melinda Hunter	Bowie	F	33	African American	7	Democrat
Jamillah Johnson	Bowie	F	29	African American	2	Unknown
Anita Baeza	Reeves	F	68	Hispanic	5	Democrat
Trinidad Villalobos	Reeves	F	60	Hispanic	4	Democrat
Virginia Ramos Garza	Nueces	F	70	Hispanic	4	Democrat
Isabel Rios Gonzalez	Nueces	F	35	Hispanic	2	Democrat
Elida Garza Flores	Nueces	F	65	Hispanic	1	Democrat
Johnny Akers	Hardeman	M	58	Unknown	6	Democrat
Melva Kay Ponce	Bee	F	53	Hispanic	1	Unknown

(Source: TX Attorney General Press Releases and Secretary of State Voting Records)

Total Ballots in Question

40 out of 4 million cast (less than .001%

Abbott Exploiting Loophole in Texas Law

• In Texas, any registered voter 65 years of age or older, or any disabled person, has the right to cast their ballot by mail. (Source: TX Secretary of State – Early Voting Texas)
• Until the 2004 election, an individual could legally assist a senior or disabled voter by helping them complete an application for a mail ballot, helping them fill out their voter information on their ballot, and once the voter had voted and sealed the carrier envelope, help the senior further by making sure the ballot was delivered to a mail box or postal facility or delivered to the elections department. (Source: Texas Election Code Section 86.006(f))
• However, as part of broader legislation meant to protect the rights of senior voters, language was added that prevented any person not related or living with a senior to help them mail their ballot.
• Abbott is using this narrow loophole to win indictments in Texas. In only one instance is Abbott charging that a ballot was cast by a person other than the voter themselves. In every other instance, the ballot was marked by a qualified voter and there is no claim that the person assisting the elderly voter did not reflect the wishes of the voter. The AG’s office acknowledge this in one case saying, “Akers (one of the accused) was not accused of manipulating someone's vote, just illegally handling ballots.” (Associated Press, November 9, 2005) The charge Abbott is pursuing is that another person simply helped make sure the ballot got mailed to the right place. Under Abbott’s interpretation election fraud would occur when a person simply gives help to elderly or disabled voters.

Training Materials Racially Biased
A central feature of the Abbott, Perry, Williams voter fraud program is a training packet designed to “educate” election officials on how to identify potential voter fraud. The training materials produced and used by the AG’s office contain obvious racial “cues” implying that African Americans should be scrutinized more closely than other voters. A copy of the entire AG packet can be viewed HERE. (Warning Large File) The most obvious and offensive racial “cues” within the packet are shown below and include:

• the use of a “sickle cell” stamp as part of a warning to “Examine Documents for Fraud” (See Large Version Here); and

• a photograph of African Americans standing in line to vote. (See Large Version Here) The training document does not include any other specific examples of potentially fraudulent documents or any photographs of Anglo voters standing in line or preparing to cast votes. (Source: Texas AG PowerPoint: Investigating Election Code Violations)

Texas Republicans Have Misused Federal Byrne Grant Funds Before

One of the most controversial, divisive and racially charged law enforcement incidents in recent Texas history is the scandal in Tulia, Texas, where African American residents were sentenced to long prison terms based on the uncorroborated testimony of only one Anglo police officer. Texas Monthly succinctly summarized the scandal when it reported: “In 1999 a Byrne grant-funded narc named Tom Coleman set up dozens of people, most of them black, in the small Panhandle town, allegedly for dealing cocaine.” In the four-year legal battle that followed, Coleman was exposed as a liar, and Governor Rick Perry eventually pardoned almost all of his victims.” (Source: Texas Monthly, September, 2005)

Current Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn was then serving as Texas Attorney General.

It appears now that during Greg Abbott’s tenure, Byrne Grant funds are again being used in a program that has the effect of intimidating minority voters, and this program is being run directly out of the Attorney General’s office.

The TDP Blogger's Caucus website

is fully operational. Thanks to Vince at Capitol Annex and Anna at annatopia for all their hard work.

Go give it a look. If you blog and plan on being in Fort Worth the second weekend of June, apply for press credentials.

We'll have a big get-together Friday evening the 9th at the Flying Saucer, with many candidates, staff, blogmeisters and groupies in attendance. This will be the most important party of the convention. No kidding.

Postpourri

( I stole that headline from Abram.)

-- regarding this earlier spleen-venting of mine, Hizzoner followed up with a webcast that filled in many of the details that were missing from Monday. Though I skipped it, this was by all accounts a much better marketing effort.

-- just completed another conference call with the folks at the Texas Freedom Network regarding their efforts toward shedding the light of day on the TaliBaptists and Christianists trying to take over our state government. And if you haven't read the Leininger interview at Texas Monthly, go do so now. There's a freak that knows how to frame.

-- tonight there's a local political rally featuring all of our statewide candidates except Chris Bell, who'll be busy at the opening of the "The Big Buy". There's a very good interview with him also in Texas Monthly. A fun-filled Friday night ahead (unless you're a Republican, of course).

More in-depth posting over the weekend.

Another lovely frame for the immigration debate

... which is a discussion that the Republicans, amongst themselves, really need to continue:

Taxpayers shouldn't have to fund the National Guard so that corporations can keep breaking the law.

Bonds, Bush, or Bill White?

This evening I was forced to prioritize my attention:

1. I could get on a conference call with Houston mayor Bill White and other H-Town blogheads regarding the municipal wi-fi plan for the city;
2. I could watch the Giants and Barry Bonds take on the Astros in Minute Maid Park;
3. ... or I could watch the Pretzledint talk about militarizing the nation's southern border.

I opted to join the conference call and put the ballgame on, volume muted. Michael Garfield of the High-Tech Texan hosted, and Mayor White was joined on the call by Richard Lewis, the city's chief information officer (an interview with Lewis on Houston's wireless initiative can be found here).

I'm going to leave the eyelid-drooping details to those who do that sort of thing better than I ever intend to (see linkage at the end). Let me summarize the half-hour by simply saying that I was disappointed with both the quality and quantity of the information dispensed. There were about a dozen of us on the call, from the left, the right, and neither (allegedly). The questions were, for the most part, supercilious and the answers conveyed nearly nothing of informational value.

Apparently when the bid proposals are submitted (tomorrow is the deadline) then someone will know more about how this effort is going to proceed, but it likely won't be anyone except Richard Lewis and Bill White and a few others at City Hall. Nothing about cost was discussed because the bids aren't in; apparently it will be a couple of years before anything can be rolled out; it will be a public/private initiative, blahblahblah.

There was lots of pontificating about having the most elite network in the United States, about not exacerbating the 'digital divide' between those of means and those without, and more crap like that.

Speaking of crap, this fellow provided us a first-inning update on the Giants home run not hit by Barry Bonds.

Anybody watch what the President said? Or the cacophony of talking heads post-speech? I sure didn't have the stomach for that, and the baseball game turned into a Giant rout -- 8-0 -- when I turned it off.

All in all, I should have gone to bed early.

Some serious analysis of tonight's call can be found here, here (but not until tomorrow), a bit of conservative snarling in advance of the call here, and a nice pre- and post-call post from Dwight at the Chronic here.

Update: the neoconservative who masquerades behind an Indian (or is it Pakistani?) pseudonym adds something worthwhile. Presumably the organizers of the call, Wythe and Kuffner, will add something later.

Update II: Matt at Houstonist has a cool picture of a coffee can all wired up. I hope this isn't the actual technology that is supposed to last a decade.

Things NOT to say if you call your Mom tomorrow

In light of the NSA's recently disclosed data-mining activity, there should be certain precautions taken if you happen to phone home on Mother's Day. Certain words and phrases that you avoid using. Such as:

Hey Mom, my new job's da bomb! My boss has been laudin' my performance! Sue aside, he says I'm the best new recruit!

After watching Scott McClellan, and now Tony Snow, I have to think, 'Gee, Hodding Carter wasn't such a bad White House spokesman.

You've not had much luck with that hedge on the left side of the house. I think the shade might kill that bush.

It's almost as exciting as the time I got to shake Muhammed Ali's hand!

Say hi to Al, Kay, da whole gang, and Gramma! Oh, and "Hi, Jack"!

And tell Dad I said, "Over the hill, my eye! E.D. is easily treated these days, and there's no reason to be ashamed.' (And please don't bring this up with me again, ever.)"

And lastly:

Love you! Death to America, the Great Satan!

How long has this been a 'Constitutional Crisis'?

The Bush administration came clean this week and told us that they had been spying on us.

As you may remember, they had previously denied doing so, then said it was only international calls, then finally admitted it was all calls. Your calls, my calls, the calls of politicians, of reporters, of government officials, tens of millions of landline and cellular phone calls and probably our e-mail communications as well. Purely between Americans. They're all stored by a government agency in an attempt to "mine" that information for, they tell us again, “potential” ties between you and the terrorists. But don't worry, the president says, the government would never misuse the data they've collected on us.

Three telecommunications companies – AT&T, which recently changed its name from SBC, and is headquartered in San Antonio; and Verizon and BellSouth – apparently allowed the NSA to monitor all calls passing through their lines. One company, Qwest, declined to participate. They thought that it might be illegal.

Republicans expressed as much shock and outrage as Democrats. Senator Dianne Feinstein said: “We are approaching a constitutional confrontation.”

Well, if the Washington politicians had been paying attention a few months ago, they could have heard David Van Os say that. In fact, David was calling it a “Consitutional Crisis” even before Al Gore was. And in February, David challenged incumbent attorney general and corporate shill Greg Abbott to protect Texans against illegal federal wiretapping:

“I think this is a matter where the people of Texas have a right to know your views. They have a right to know if their elected attorney general views such important issues the same way Alberto Gonzales and George Bush do, or if he will stand by their fundamental rights to be free from unwarranted governmental intrusion into their personal phone calls.”

The Attorney General is given broad power in the Texas Constitution to bring marauding corporations to heel. He can file a lawsuit on behalf of all Texans restraining their activities which are in violation of the law. And every legal expert agrees that wiretapping without a warrant is against the law.

So is there anything can you do to prevent your government from continuing to spy on you? Sure is. First, contact AT&T and Verizon and BellSouth if you’re their customer and tell them to stop sharing your information with the feds. Second, call Greg Abbott’s office and ask him when he intends to do his job and demand that the big phone companies stop breaking the law.

And third, you can vote in November for an Attorney General who will fight to protect your civil rights from a federal government and big companies who want to keep taking them away.

Full disclosure (for those who weren't already aware): I am the statewide coordinator for the Van Os campaign.