Falsified government documents and suborning of perjury among charges made by Leo Vasquez, Assessor-Collector & Voter Registrar for Harris County.
HOUSTON - Much is at stake in the upcoming November election. Every seat in the United States House of Representatives is in play and the outcomes of these races will determine who will lead the Congress of the United States beginning in 2011. Throughout Harris County important races for state reps, the state Senate and judgeships are on the line.
Your future, your security, your taxes, your job or an opportunity for employment, and the security of your rights will be affected for the good or the bad based on the outcome of the November election.
In Texas politics we’re used to hard-fought races, even some good old-fashioned political mudslinging and backbiting, but we Texans want our elections to be fair and free from all of the criminal shenanigans now so closely associated with Florida and Chicago politics. Unfortunately, it appears as if Chicago-style thuggery has now made its way into our political process.
Leo Vaquez, Harris County Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar, released an August 24, 2010 a report detailing a stunning array of widespread, highly organized voter fraud that, unless stopped immediately, will almost certainly affect the outcome of Harris County races and possibly negate your legal vote.
Mr. Vasquez says, “Unfortunately, it is my duty to share with you today that the integrity of the Voter Roll in Harris County, Texas appears to be under an organized and systematic attack by the group operating under the name ‘Houston Votes’. Houston Votes is the voter registration machine of the ‘Texans Together Education Fund.’ Houston Votes and Texans Together have effectively emerged as our area’s new ACORN organization.”
Vasquez released a 72 page PowerPoint document with incredible detail of the fraud, phony signatures, and even voter registration applications filled out by people who checked the box “Non-Citizen”. The result is that the voter registration office has been flooded with bogus or duplicate registration forms that have tied up staff and cost taxpayers thousands of dollars in wasted time.
Mr. Vasquez’s investigation has found nearly 1,600 cases of multiple applications from the same voter, over 1,000 applications from citizens already registered as well as over 300 from people too young to vote.
Houston Votes, which pays staff to collect voter registrations from citizens has turned in 25,640 registrations generating 7,193 new registered voters and resulting in 3,531 applications which were rejected because either Texas Drivers License numbers and/or Social Security numbers did not match. Houston Votes has also generated 129 felon rejection of applications and submitted 1,133 applications where the No ID box was checked and turned in 1,323 applications after the 5 day statutory deadline.
It would be easy to assume that Houston Votes has simply hired over-zealous or blatantly incompetent people to act as “deputies” in securing these voter registration applications, but Vasquez’s investigation has uncovered far more.
Part of the issue with Houston Votes is that they operate using a “pay-per-packet” policy. Mr. Vasquez explains, “A payment per piece set up risks incentivizing workers for focus on quantity with a disregard of quality. If I were funding Houston Votes and Texans Together, I would be quite upset that instead of paying for six new registrations I was instead paying for the same person being registered six times. Or, worse yet, an already-registered voter being re-registered multiple times.”
The investigation by Mr. Vasquez has also uncovered complaints from voters in Harris County who report that Houston Votes personnel have lied to them in order to coerce voters to fill out new voter applications. Those lies include statements that the tax office computer has suffered a computer malfunction requiring voters to re-register, that voters will be required to carry a new plastic voting card in order to vote and that the card will only be issued if the voter re-registers. Lastly, voters have been told that if they do not re-register they will be removed from the voter registration rolls. All of these are false statements, says Mr. Vasquez.
Mr. Vasquez stresses that the voter registration rolls are intact and operating properly, and wants to remind voters that if they have already registered there is no need to register again. If you have registered again after being persuaded to do so by anyone and want to know your status you can visit
Harris County Voter Home or call (713) 368-2200.
Mr. Vasquez also notes that many volunteer organizations do a very good job of helping to register voters, “We welcome and encourage the efforts of all interested citizens and organizations who, within the boundaries of the law, work to help register voters.” The League of Women Voters works to register voters and their registrations are 99% accurate.
“In trying to find a positive out of this, it is my sincere hope that this episode will bring more attention to the general public about the importance of voter registration. Hopefully this will also spur legislation on both the Federal and State levels to put more teeth into election fraud penalties. Under the Texas Election Code most of these violations are only misdemeanors, albeit hundreds of misdemeanors at a time. Submitting forged signatures to a governmental entity may be a more serious crime,” says Vasquez.
Houston Votes is now refuting all charges made by Mr. Vasquez and has promised to answer the charges in a press conference to be held tomorrow morning at 10:30 am.
Houston Votes says, "Houston Votes will answer and refute the reckless allegations made by Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar, Leo Vasquez, on Tuesday, August 24.
"Leo Vasquez made reckless and false allegations against Houston Votes, the organization, in an apparently coordinated, partisan effort to suppress voter registration and to intimidate citizens into not voting.
"Sadly, this type of shameful tactic has worked all too well in the past. Houston Votes is committed to non-partisan voter registration and helping register the over 600,000 citizens eligible to vote who are not even registered."
ABOUT HOUSTON VOTES:
Houston Votes describes itself as follows, “Houston Votes, a project of Texans Together, is a nonpartisan voter registration drive in Harris County. Its goal is to register 100,000 new voters by the October 4th deadline and turn out 50,000 new voters on election day.”
ABOUT TEXANS TOGETHER:
The members of the Board of Directors for Texans Together are:
James Aldrete (Austin) is president of Message Audience Presentation, a public relations and political communications company.
Ambassador Christopher Ashby (Houston) has had a distinguished career in international banking, working in Europe and Asia as well as in the United States. In 1997, Mr. Ashby was appointed Ambassador to Uruguay by President Clinton where he served until 2001.
Ann De Llano (Austin) is the founder and principal of Capital City Solutions, a public interest advocacy firm. She recently created and implemented an innovative, award-winning GOTV effort aimed at young minorities using hip-hop music and video in Harris County.
John Donisi (Austin) is an attorney with the firm of Drenner & Golden Stuart Wolff. He has served as Special Assistant to Texas Governor Ann W. Richards and General Counsel to the Texas Senate’s Jurisprudence Committee.
Cris Feldman (Houston) practices civil litigation in Houston with Rusty Hardin & Associates. He has won many awards for leading the successful civil lawsuit against Tom Delay’s TRMPAC that exposed corporate corruption in Texas.
Fred Lewis (Austin) is the founder and President of Texans Together Education Fund, Inc. He has worked as a public interest attorney, non-profit leader, and community organizer for years.
Rita Lucido (Houston) practices family law and is a named partner in Cothrun and Lucido. She has been involved in numerous civic activities, including as a board member of Planned Parenthood of Houston, Jane’s Due Process, DiverseWorks, and Texas Women Lawyers.
Keir Murray (Houston) is the founder and principal of KLM consulting, a political, public affairs, public opinion and communications consulting firm. He has has served as a consultant to the Mayor of Houston, Houston Community College, Houston Metro, and Sheriff Adrian Garcia.
Andres Pereira (Houston) is an attorney who practices mass tort litigation and is involved in numerous civic organizations.
Keith Wade (Houston) has been involved in community and political organizing for 30 years in Houston and the African-American community, including running three congressional offices.
Some notable members of the Texans Together Education Fund Advisory Board include:
Jay Aiyer, a former member of the Houston Community College governing board, pled guilty in June of 2007 to a misdemeanor charge of tampering with a governmental record and did not seek re-election thereafter.
Robbie Ausley, an Austin resident and board member of Planned Parenthood, who has raised millions of dollars for the pro-abortion organization.
Sissy Farenthold, longtime liberal Democrat and former Texas house member.
Bruce Elfant, a Travis County constable.
Sherry Greenberg, a former Texas State rep and now a faculty member at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.
Kristi Thibaut, current democrat State Rep for District 133 in Houston.
HARRIS COUNTY VOTER REGISTRATION PROCESS OVERWHELMED WITH ACORN-LIKE FRAUD TACTICS - TheCypressTimes
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