Thousands of voter registrations from Houston Votes called fraudulent, incomplete

Voter registration group Houston Votes has inundated the county voter registrar's office with faulty registrations, including multiple applications for the same voters and for noncitizens, registrar Leo Vasquez said. He likens it to ACORN.

Two Texas activist groups, Houston Votes and Texans Together Education Fund, were accused Tuesday of an organized voter fraud campaign by Harris County Voter Registrar Leo Vasquez, who likened the groups to the now-discredited ACORN.

“The integrity of the voting rolls in Harris County, Texas, appears to be under an organized and systematic attack by the group operating under the name Houston Votes,” Vasquez said at a 2 p.m. press conference at his office, where he also released copies of applications in some of the most egregious cases.

Houston Votes is the get-out-the-vote arm of the Texans Together Education Fund.

“Evidence shows that the Houston Votes and Texans Together organization are conspiring on a pattern of falsification of government documents, supporting perjury in a deliberate effort to overburden our processing system," he said.

Vasquez said he is turning evidence over to the Secretary of State’s office and the Harris County District Attorney’s office for further action. He called into question more than 5,000 voter registration applications.

Vasquez' office announcement was based in part on research by a conservative-leaning citizens' group, the King Street Patriots, which had presented his staff with documentation of questionable voter registrations, a leader of the Patriots group said.

Texans Together head Fred Lewis said that he has worked with Vasquez to clear up any discrepancies until recently.

"He is a liar and a political hack," Lewis said. "We are going to the Justice Department to make sure he doesn't make a mockery of the voting process."

Lewis and several others from his group seeking to help register voters attended classes offered by Vasquez' office. The group took more than 50,000 voter registration forms, Vasquez said.

But “after observing consistent and repeated patterns of apparently fraudulent or excessively sloppy work,” Vasquez and his deputies called Lewis and other group members into the office for a conference. The parties went over the troubling elements of the registrations.

Among the problems were multiple applications for one voter, some registered voters being signed up again and voters who claimed to have no Texas ID, driver’s license or Social Security card.

Lewis confirmed the meetings and said that some of his field people charged with registering voters were let go.

“We sat down and said, ‘Let us know of these problems, and we will take care of them,’ Lewis said. “We fixed every problem they brought to our attention. We cooperated.”

Vasquez contends they did not rectify enough issues and his office spent “thousands of dollars in taxpayer money” to go over the submitted documents in an attempt to straighten things out.

He alleges Lewis and his operations have violated Texas Election Code, submitted falsified documents and “possibly violated federal election laws.”

Sean Caddle, the director of Houston Votes, admitted that there may have been “mistakes made” by his vote gathering team, but said Houston Votes did nothing wrong and called it a legitimate program.

After Caddle was shown examples of Houston Votes workers registering one name – Carmella Bellazer – with the same date of birth six times on the same day, he said “that probably would be a clear case of fraud.”

Caddle is a former Service Employees International Union worker from New Jersey and also recently worked in Colorado as part of a voter registration effort there linked to the effort that turned the Centennial State from a solid red state to a Democratic stronghold.

Catherine Engelbrecht, the leader of the King Street Patriots, said she became interested in digging into voter fraud after working the polls in November and seeing the potential for fraud.

“That set things into motion,” she said. “It stood to reason where the was smoke there was fire. It didn’t seem the process was tight at all.”

In the coming months, she and hundreds of other volunteers decided to start digging into public records and the group's True the Vote initiative was born.

“We’re just digging it up and passing it to the proper authorities,” Engelbrecht said.

First, the group looked at all homes with more than six registered voters. They zeroed in on one congressional district, she said, that had more of these homes than others: District 18, home of Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.

Engelbrecht said, though, that the group's efforts were not about partisan politics. She also says her group has begun examining every single voter on the registry – not just those in a particular Congressional district.

“This is so not about party,” she said. “This is about maintaining the integrity of our voter rolls.”

Lewis said he was aware that a right-leaning group had submitted documents to Vasquez, though he didn't know of the Patriots by name. He said he felt Vasquez' action was politically driven.

While Lewis maintains his group is nonpartisan, its board is decidedly liberal-leaning, according to research by blogHouston, which noted earlier this month that the Texans Together board included a Bill Clinton appointee, Democratic consultants and an aide to former Gov. Ann Richards.

Lewis said that he and Vasquez, a Republican lame duck, had a meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 10:30 a.m., but he is now not sure it is on, in light of Vasquez' announcement.

Vote fraud via phony registrations is not new in Houston (Harris County). Note the many clues in my report from the 2000 election below. The virtally un-hackable ESlate voting machines combined with a purge of dead people, multiple registrations, and felons from the Voter Roll by Leo Vasquez predecessor really cut down on the opportunity for fraud.

Now the commies have torched the voting machines in order to more easily commit fraud. Note that in my report voters were handed pre-punched ballots and there was ample opportunity for the dim officials to tamper with the paper ballots.

Also note that YOU CAN make a difference. I prevented over 100 people from voting multiple times in that election.

Here is my detailed report:

Report on Poll Watching, 11/7/00

1. I was the only Poll Watcher at Precinct 154, Harris County, TX. The polling place was at St. Andrews United Methodist Church, 2420 Garland, Houston, TX.

2. The Election Judge was Joe Delgado. Ray McKenzie and Oscar Trevino were the Deputy Election Judges. All were Democrats as were the clerks.

3. Problems encountered:

A. The Election Judge did not start off with the ballots in numbered sequence making it difficult to determine how many people had voted. They eventually started over at #1.

B. The ballot can was never locked. The staff was continually taking ballots out to sort, count, and re-box throughout the day. The staff could punch all the extra holes they wanted to as they handled the paper ballots.

C. Throughout the day people showed up with VRCs (Voter Registration Cards) indicating that they were registered in other precincts. I objected and generally the Election Judge declined to let them vote. I counted at least 35 from other precincts who were turned away. Examples:
Lynda Reyes
Jusino Sametra
Nicole Harrison
Juan Aurelio Avalos
Angelica Luna
Richard Michael White

D. There were a number of questionable voters who had moved according to the address on their TDL (Texas Driver’s License), but they were still registered in Precinct 154. I was not able to copy down names and addresses in every case. They were all allowed to vote. Examples:
Roy Simmons 1015 Colquit Houston, 77056
Joseph Banuelos said that he moved 15 years ago, but he had a VRC for this precinct and was allowed to vote.
Ladislao Maldonado had moved to Pasadena, but had a VRC for Precinct 154. He was allowed to vote.
Domingo Ramirez had moved to Pearland, but had a VRC for Precinct 154. He was allowed to vote.
Belia Delacroy Guerrero came in and stated that she had been working at another precinct polling place. However, she had a VRC for Precinct 154 and was allowed to vote.
Manuel Mata
Pedro Ortegon
Michael Banuelos

E. Many women had names different from that on the voter rolls, allegedly because of marriage. Examples:
Debra Roe (per TDL) voted as Debra Green

F. There were cases where more than one voter at the same address had the same name, e.g., two Eva Riojas (she said one was her daughter, but the birthdate did not match her TDL), and she was allowed to vote.

G. The Election Judge was going into the voting booth with many new voters who did not speak English. He was advocating a “Yes” vote on the Arena measure. Since I speak Spanish, I questioned him on this. He seemed surprised and stopped advocating the measure to the voters.

H. Francesco Gonsales had a valid Voter Registration Card for Precinct 154 but was not in the book. He was allowed to vote.

I. Donna Long had no identification whatsoever. She completed the Challenge form and was allowed to vote.

J. The Democratic Party “Card Pusher” at this location, Manuel Rodriguez, tried to vote. However, he could not produce identification or a VRC so I objected. He was not allowed to vote although he claimed to live in the neighborhood. All of the staff including the Election Judge seemed to be friends of his.

K. There were a number of discrepancies where the name, date of birth, street number, etc. were different on the TDL, VRC, or in the book. In almost every case they were allowed to vote.

L. There were a number of people who tried to vote who were obviously not living in the area. This included one man with a New York State Driver’s License, one from San Antonio TX, and several from the Rio Grande Valley. They were not allowed to vote.

M. Some VRCs were badly smudged and difficult to read.

N. Precinct 154 had no Statement of Residency forms for voters who needed them.

O. It was common for the questionable voters to have 000000 for their date of birth on their VRC.

P. Joe Delgado, the Election Judge, was very upset over the number of people who claimed to have registered to vote and never received a VRC in the mail. However, he called the Registrar’s office and cleared up most of the cases.

Q. The Election Judge complained of voters being removed from the rolls who had not voted since 1996. Some of these appeared to be legitimate.

R. Late in the day we started to get a number of people trying to vote without a TDL or a VRC or any other form of identification. My impression was that they were trying this tactic at different polling places to see how many times someone would let them vote. Most left immediately when I started to write down a description of the person attempting to vote.

S. I noticed that a lady in line waiting to vote already had a hole punched in her ballot. I notified the Election Judge and the ballot was put into the spoiled pile. Hole number 13 had already been punched for the Gore-Lieberman ticket.

T. The Election Judge allowed one voter to vote without completing the Challenge form. He said that he knew her personally and that she had voted in the Primary. I did not get her name.

U. G. Gerrardo had two registrations at the same address. He voted and said that he would cancel one registration.

V. Ray McKenzie, the Deputy Election Judge, seemed to be against the Arena measure and did not tell some voters about it when he was assisting them. He encouraged voters to punch the straight ticket.

W. Late in the day Joe Delgado, the Election Judge, was on the telephone trying to confirm voters’ eligibility. He was running behind on signing ballots. The Democratic card pusher, Manuel Rodriguez, sat down and with the Judge’s permission began to forge Joe Delgado’s signature. When I noticed and started writing notes on my pad they stopped immediately, and Joe resumed signing ballots.

X. Rick Noriega, the incumbent State Legislator, arrived at 6:40 P.M. and began talking to the voters, the Election Judge, and the Democratic card pusher. When I began writing on my pad, he left.

4. Observations:

A. People seemed to take a long time in voting. However when I mentioned this to the Election Judge, he said that about one third were voting straight tickets according to his observation of the holes punched.

B. The clerks were in the process of handing ballots to people who were registered in other precincts. However when I objected, they stopped accepting these voters.

C. A very high percentage were voting for the first time, and many of them asked for assistance from the Election Judge or his deputies.

D. At least 8 ballots dropped in the box were totally blank with no holes punched. Ray McKenzie said that 1% blank undervoted ballots is normal (he had been Election Judge for the 35 previous years at this precinct).

E. The state inspectors who came through were very helpful, especially Alice Zimmerman. They knew the details of the rules and corrected a number of minor violations on the spot.

F. The Election Judge said that he worked very hard for his party prior to the election. He personally walked 5 precincts.

G. A large number (estimate over 100) of voters had an address on their Texas Driver’s License that was different from their Voter Registration Card. The general explanation given was that the voter had not put in a change of address card. These people were allowed to vote as long as they had a VRC for Precinct 154. However, it is possible that some individuals simply registered again each time they moved resulting in the potential for voting multiple times at different precincts.

H. The Democratic “card pusher” was giving out drinks and bags of popcorn. This made him popular with voters.
I. The TDL provided better and more accurate data than the VRC.

J. Bringing coffee and donuts for everyone helped my relationship with the staff. They were courteous at all times.

K. The final count of ballots cast was 863 at Precinct 154. There were 5 spoiled ballots. The Election Judge told me that about 200 had voted early or absentee.

5. Recommendations:

A. Poll Watchers need more training. I was unsure whether many of the practices were legal and proper. I had to take the Election Judge’s word on many questions. For example, a checklist of what to look for and a decision tree to handle potential questionable voters would have helped. I received the official state pamphlet, but it needs to be expanded.

B. Having a computer hookup like that at Early Voting locations would help immensely.

C. Checking credentials is probably one of the most valuable things that a Poll Watcher can do. On the VRC one needs to check the precinct, name, DOB, and address and cross check with the TDL and the voter roll.

D. The Poll Watcher needs to be careful of voters being handed more than one ballot. Several people walked back up to the clerks and said that they had not been handed a ballot. It would have been easy to obtain two ballots as the clerks were inundated late in the day.

E. One of Joe Vu’s poll watchers, Khoi Le, told me that during Early Voting, he found a plastic strip in a voting machine that prevented holes from being punched when the ballot was inserted. I inspected each voting machine regularly in my precinct and found no such device. However, anyone could place such a strip in a machine that would prevent punching holes for certain candidates. It might also produce dimpled or pregnant chads.

F. Poll Watchers need to be able to speak the language of the voters. At Precinct 154, if the Poll Watcher does not speak Spanish then he won’t really know what is going on.

G. Poll Watchers should dress like a person in authority. Because I wore a suit and tie, the voters seemed to think that I was the person in authority. I believe that this contributed to fewer attempted violations.

H. There is no substitute for having a Deputy Election Judge from the opposite or minority party. This person is intimately involved in the process and has more value than a Poll Watcher.

I. If the “card pusher” had a computer or mapbook, he could help voters who went to the wrong polling place. Ideally, there should be a computer to check names, addresses, etc. against the voter roll. For example, he could have a sign that says, “Check With Me First If You Have A Question About Where To Vote”.

J. There were a number of voters who could not locate their VRC. If a party wants to get their base to the polls it should help voters with their paperwork in advance.

K. Somehow, the voter roll needs to be purged of people registered under multiple names and at multiple addresses.

L. Poll Watchers need to ask more questions and get issues resolved early in the day with the Election Judge. Once the clerks are instructed properly, they will tend to perform properly.

Here are my Free Republic posts from the 1996 California election:

Start watching for phantom voters on the rolls. The professional election scam artists use illegals and winos to steal sample ballots from your mailbox in order to vote them absentee. In the 1996 election in Orange County I surveyed 200 registered voters in Orange County across 7 precincts. 50% were non-existent phantom voters. 50%!!! The phantoms were registered to ordinary homes in suburban neighborhoods where the mailboxes were accessible from the street to facilitate stealing the sample ballots. BTW, my survey was in Bob Dornan’s district during the election where he lost his seat. IMHO, the phantom voters did far more fraud damage to him than the illegal aliens that you read about in the controlled press. The LA Slimes and the OC Register knew about this because I offered them proof; they were careful to cover up the highly successful Democratic phantom voter project. California elections often go to the candidate who is willing to commit the most felonies. If any Freepers want to know how to bust this scam, email me.

Like I have been saying for 7 years now: The vote fraud scam artists often register phantom voters as Republicans or Independents to confuse investigators. Start watching for phantom voters on the rolls. They simply make up names and register them to an address with a mailbox on the street
In California vote fraud professionals register hundreds of thousands of non-existent phantoms so that they can vote them absentee by mail. Stealing elections is a big, profitable business in a number of areas. The stats on registration and turnout are worthless until the voter rolls are purged of such phantoms. You can find the precincts where this is practiced by spot checking phonebooks, reverse directories, etc. as well as cross checking population figures with the 2000 Census. Illegals, felons, and dead voters can be detected by similar means.

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