Posted on 04/04/2002 7:54:24 PM PST by GOPcapitalist
More than 2,000 people voted illegally in the local November elections and the Houston mayoral runoff in December, including 712 people who cast ballots in city races and don't live in the city.
That's according to an audit of poll records released today by Harris County Tax-Assessor Collector Paul Bettencourt, who is also the county's voter registrar.
The audit, which has been given to District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal for investigation, also showed that 1,540 people who weren't eligible to vote were allowed to do so without filling out an affidavit challenging their status as registered voters.
Voters whose names do not appear on the list of registered voters at a polling place or one kept by the voter registrar must be offered a "challenge affidavit." The form allows election judges to declare why they believe a person is ineligible to vote and allows the voter to respond by reporting how and where they registered to vote.
The election judge then decides whether to allow the person to vote.
And while the numbers involved would have not changed the outcome of the mayoral runoff between incumbent Lee Brown and challenger Orlando Sanchez, for example, Bettencourt said they are still disturbing.
The audit shows there's an even greater need to impress upon election judges the need to use challenge affidavits and not just let people vote without questioning their credentials to do so, said Bettencourt, whose office plays a role in training officials who work the polls.
"The fact we had more than 1,500-plus voters going around the system means there could be a major impact in close elections and the fact that we had 700 people that we know of who voted in the city elections -- when we know they were registered outside the city -- could also have had a huge impact in a close election," said Bettencourt, who is required by law to audit the poll books.
Bettencourt did add, however, that the numbers show election judges are doing a better job.
For example, only 6 percent of those who voted in the general election in 2000 and couldn't prove they were registered filled out challenge affidavits. That increased to 26 percent for the elections in November and December.
Overall, the audit showed that 2,098 people voted illegally in those elections. Most were not registered, others voted after being taken off the voter rolls for some reason.
A few who voted illegally were convicted felons who haven't yet gotten the right to vote again, some were people who had moved out of the county, a handful were not U.S. citizens and many voted in the wrong precincts -- that category being made up of the 712 people who voted in the city elections who didn't live in the city, 636 of which voted in the mayoral runoff.
Rosenthal said his office would go through the audit and try to narrow the numbers in an attempt to find cases of voters fraud that can be prosecuted. But, he added, such cases are tough because of the complexity of the state's election code and the challenge of proving someone's intent.
"Most of the time," he said, "these cases are like finding a turtle on a fence post. You know the turtle didn't get there by himself, but what exactly happened is hard to prove."
It's 2000 votes, which is a big chunk, but this is just the tip of the iceburg.
I don't see anyone on our side who has the guts to stand up against (or who even cares about) this blatant subversion of our election system. Motor-voter was just the tip of the iceberg for this strategy.
They scream racism before, during, and after scampaigns these days.
He probably doesn't want Houston's only daily paper to spill the beans on him though. The downtown business partnership still wants more money from the city (get while the getting is good). The encumbent was returned to office because they weren't done with the inside sweetheart deals yet.
Then they claim Voter ID proposal called slap at poor complaining that the poor often don't have driver's licenses and that being required to show one would cause undue financial burden to try to vote (and this is just being asked for first time voters)!
Big Bump!
It seems as though the more racist a person or group is, the more likely they are
going to try to label others as racist in order to distract from their own racism.
Last night on Fox 26 news (in Houston) they gave the election results (between 9 and 10PM) and said that one ballot box was still missing.
Was this box missing locally (Houston/Harris county?) or was this just somewhere in the state of Texas? Was it ever located?
This is just a primary but can still be an indicator of things to come in November...
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