So much for that voter Intimidation

(Harris Co. officials find no evidence of voter intimidation; co. attorney Ryan mediating election spat, says no conflict in donation to Houston Votes; feds not investigating tea party group, Steve Miller, Texas Watchdog*)


I'm going to reproduce part of this story here:

And all accusations of intimidation were looked into by the Harris County Clerk’s Office, which found no proof of any malfeasance, said Hector DeLeon, a spokesman for the office.

“We processed 26,031 votes, we had 14 complaints, all from Democrats, of intimidation,” DeLeon said. "We had no complaints on Tuesday or [Wednesday]."

Representatives from his office went to each site of a complaint, spoke with officials there and found nothing to uphold any allegation of trouble, he said.

Still, Ryan called for a monitor from the U.S. Department of Justice, although reports that the DOJ was looking into any particular group – including declarations that some tea party members were involved in the intimidation accusations -- were incorrect.

DOJ: No investigation into any specific political organization, tea party

“The department is looking into allegations of misconduct in polling places that occurred in Harris County during the first day of early voting,” DOJ spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said via e-mail. “There is no investigation into any specific political organization, including the tea party, at this time regarding this matter.”

Birnberg, the Democratic party chair, insists there was intimidation and that it has continued.

"The complaints the clerk's office deals with are different from the complaints we are receiving," he said. "We get the documented stories of intimidation, from credible sources. One was on the board of trustees at Houston Community College. One worked for a Texas senator."

The fracas, which involves investigations, lawsuits, ethics complaints and allegations of intimidation and improper activity at polling sites, stems from Vasquez' assertion in August that Houston Votes had turned in thousands of faulty voter registrations. The lame-duck Republican compared the work of Houston Votes to that of the much-maligned ACORN in a press conference.

The King Street Patriots is a conservative group that has taken up squelching voter fraud as a key issue, through its True the Vote arm. It provided Vasquez research of its findings before that press conference.

It’s too early for the King Street Patriots to file a tax form 990, which would shed light on the scope of its operation.

So much for that. It's good to see that the Department of Justice is still going to be out there just in case. We don't want voter intimidation occurring on either side.



Also: This Texas Watchdog story, about City produced videos for City bonds in Austin is worth reading as well.





*Texas Watchdog has very nicely made this story available for reproduction through a creative commons license, however, I'm too crunched for time to replicate all of the code. I encourage you to head over and read the whole thing.