El Franco Lee
Posted on 10/20/2010 12:44:17 AM PDT by American Dream 246
Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher reports voter intimidation in Harris County, Texas (Houston) by volunteer poll watchers trained by King Street Patriots, a local non-partisan group who started the True The Vote campaign. Tommy leads with this inflammatory paragraph saying:
In a story that’s sure to draw comparisons to the New Black Panther Party member who brandished a nightstick at a Philadelphia polling place in 2008, a Tea Party group called the King Street Patriots has been accused of “1960s style” voter intimidation in primarily minority precincts on the first day of early voting in Texas. The group is being sued by the Texas Democratic Party, following the filing of 14 voter intimidation complaints with the county clerk, and another two dozen with the Texas Democratic Party chairman.
Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of King’s Street Patriots strongly denies the allegations and noted that it was absurd that “little old ladies” would be intimidating anyone. She says that one 65 year old woman poll watcher came back from poll watching, after being kicked out for simply being present–itself a violation of the law–in tears.
Engelbrecht also notes that King’s Street Patriots learned they were being sued by the Texas Democratic Party at 11 a.m. yesterday morning when not one poll watcher had yet been removed and not one complaint sent to the county about any untoward actions.
In one instance, three poll watchers were yelled at by a Democrat Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee who said,”Why are you here? We have never had poll watchers here. Ya’ll need to get on out of here.”
Lee then demanded that the polling place judge give him information about the three poll watchers and the presiding judge complied–giving him their private information. The three poll watchers now fear for their safety and wonder what will be done with their personal information which included their phone numbers and home addresses.
Tommy Christopher, who, it should be noted is a White House correspondent and not a Texas native nor a Texas reporter, makes an outrageous linkage to the Philadelphia Black Panther case. In that case, Black Panther members were armed and preventing people from voting.
The alleged cases here in Houston are unsupported accusations with no documentation and no video or audio proof. Meanwhile, the poll watchers themselves report being yelled at and harassed, told to leave, and intimidated.
Catherine Engelbrecht expressed frustration about the situation–about being sued, about the constant barrage of negative national media and the misunderstanding around the purpose of True The Vote.
“We want everyone to have a free and fair election,” Englebrecht said. “That’s all we want. We are 100% innocent.”
Houston blogger Kevin Whited notes that it looks like the “Colorado Model” is being brought to Harris County, Texas. He goes on to explain:
Of course, Matt Angle features in The Blueprint, a fine piece of political journalism that describes how a handful of committed millionaire progressives managed to flip formerly reliably Republican Colorado to the Dems over a few election cycles, through strategic funding of down-ballot political races, creation of a loose network of “independent” news organizations and “ethics” groups to pound targeted opponents, and liberal use (no pun intended) of the legal system to tie up ostensibly conservative organizations. Angle all but promised to bring the Colorado Model to Texas, in the form of his Lone Star Project (and associated groups).
And if you begin to connect the dots locally — as Cory Crow also does — you can see elements of the Colorado Model at work, right here in Harris County. Now, There’s nothing illegal or unethical per se about the model. In many ways, The Blueprint is a great political novel that just happens to be true. However, given the state political media’s occasional interest in the influence of big money in politics (when it happens to be a donor like, say, Bob Perry), it would be nice to see that same interest extend to progressive big money and the machinations of nominally “independent” front groups.
Another local Houston blogger, Cory Crow does connect the dots:
It’s interesting to note that, on the same day the HCDP added KSP to their lawsuit the George Soros/Matt Angle backed Texans for Public Justice filed an ethics complaint against KSP based almost entirely on reporting found in another Colorado Model media outlet, The American Independent, which was then dutifully carried by another Colorado Model “news” outlet The Texas Tribune which conveniently forgot to disclose TPJ’s funding ties to Texas Democratic king-maker Matt Angle.*
So we have several (allegedly) Democratic partisan groups suing and filing ethics complaints against an (allegedly) Republican partisan group for (allegedly) performing the exact same actions they’re (allegedly) involved in.
Now, to connect the dots even further. Earlier today, I noted that The Texas Tribune just partnered with the New York Times who has just opened a Texas division. From Poynter Online there’s this:
In addition to Texas Tribune’s public policy reporting, the Times plans to publish some cultural and lifestyles coverage in the new regional pages. Evan Smith, who was a longtime editor of Texas Monthly before becoming editor of Texas Tribune, will commission and edit the additional content separately from his duties at the Tribune.
The Democrats seem to want to make Texas a battleground state–by any means necessary. The only sticking point has been a small grassroots organization simply wanting to make sure Harris County elections are free and fair.
No doubt, this is not the last we’ve heard on this story.
These Democrats are lying.
White is an SEIU love slave. Bet they are behind this.
I am so fed up that I will declare my position on politics at the drop of a hat. I was on the verge of calling the Sheriff and demanding that the woman be arrested for interfering with an election. I simply am not tolerating ANY crap from the left.
That's why they don't allow Whitey anywhere near their polling places.
Thanks - I’m not in Harris County but live close enough to smell it.....
snip.........
The complaints, he said, came from Kashmere Gardens, Moody Park, Sunnyside and other predominantly minority neighborhoods. The complaints included poll watchers "hovering over" voters, "getting into election workers' faces" and blocking or disrupting lines of voters waiting to cast their ballots.
"Keep in mind these are allegations of voter intimidation," O'Rourke said. "It's sometimes in the eye of the beholder."....
"Poll watchers are as important in free elections as anything, and we are committed to allowing them to do their job, but they're very limited in what they can do," said Hector DeLeon, a spokesman for the Harris County clerk's office.
Any time the county clerk's office receives a call, DeLeon said, someone from the office calls the presiding judge at the precinct in question, discusses the allegations and reviews poll watcher guidelines. "We take every call seriously," he said.
Kevin Mauzy, chief deputy county clerk, said more poll watchers than usual showed up during the first day of early voting, and their numbers may have made some voters uneasy. "They're entitled to watch the process," he said.
End snips
************
Harris County warns parties to watch the poll-watchers
Responding to complaints that poll watchers were intimidating voters in predominantly minority polling locations, County Attorney Vince Ryan summoned the county chairmen of both major parties to his office Tuesday and reminded them of their responsibility to make sure the observers were obeying the law.
Ryan also announced in the meeting that he has requested a monitor from the Justice Department to observe the voting process in Harris County through Nov. 2.
In a follow-up letter to the county chairmen, Ryan pointed out that poll watchers are entitled to be at a polling location, but cannot be present at the actual polling station when the voter is preparing his ballot and cannot converse with an election officer about the election, except to call attention to an irregularity or violation of the law........
Birnberg placed the blame on some 300 poll watchers trained by a group of tea party activists who call themselves the King Street Patriots.
Poll watchers must be affiliated with either a party or a candidate, although the King Street Patriots group, through a project called True the Vote, is recruiting poll watchers on its website for Election Day, Nov. 2.
Hiram Sasser, an attorney for the King Street Patriots, denied that any of the hundreds of poll workers the organization has trained were instructed to run afoul of election laws or intimidate voters.
end snips
bfl
I did a search wondering if El Franco Lee was any relation to Sheila Whaaa-Don’t-You-Know-Who-I-Am Jackson Lee (D-TX). I couldn’t find much background info on him but I did notice someone else was wondering the same thing.
Until conservatives meet such treason with moves of their own, nothing will change.
This is very disturbing. On another note I hope the Texas Rangers beat the Yankees today.
Bill White will literally do ANYTHING to win.
This is another example of how the left is systematically destroying the institutions of democracy in this country. They are ending the era of polite and decent political debate and driving the population towards radicalism.
We don’t seek to violate the rights of those deluded enough to vote for the traitors destroying this nation but we are done turning the other cheek when we are pushed. Time to push back. Hard.
The Tea Party needs to get election monitors into every precinct. The Republicans have failed to do anything in the past about election fraud or organized recount outrages of the Frankin/Gore variety. The GOP establishment will man up a little if they see the Tea Party assuming another duty they have neglected.
This sort of BS should have been nicked in the bud after the 2000 Florida recount.
They are not related by blood, just by evil ethics and party affiliation.
Ok, just checking.
El Franco Lee
******
El Franco Lee, is a native Houstonian, reared in Houston’s Kashmere Gardens Addition
Lee has worked hard to improve the quality of life for the residents in underserved areas.
His emphasis on the inner city has had a far-reaching impact and has been instrumental in providing services and opportunities for youth and young adults through various initiatives within the Harris County Precinct One Street Olympics Program.
In 1986, Street Olympics began as a Summer Youth Program, for the inner city. He has continued his passion and emphasis on youth initiatives through the creation and expansion of the Northeast Adolescent Program (NEAP) that started in 1990. Currently in its 14th year, NEAP now serves several thousand youth each year through the teen health clinics that are located within his precinct area.
ESPA CORP was founded by Mr. Peter Blum and Mr. El Franco Lee in July 1981 and later joined by Mr. Murdock Smith, P.E. In March 2005, the company was acquired by Dr. Karun Sreerama, MBA, PE. With a staff currently exceeding 35 persons, the company is a leading multi-disciplinary company in the region. We are currently participating in the Program Management of some of the largest local construction bond programs worth over $1 billion.
Looks like I need to go do some “poll watching”
I was going to do it on Nov. 2 and was going to try to get into Sheila J Lee’s district....looks like I may need to go earlier.
I PROMISE you, I will not be crying when I leave there. And I WON’T leave without a police escort.
In Texas, can you carry in a polling place? If not, my pepper spray will have to suffice. And my cell phone camera.
ping
Harris County real estate deals being watched by the FBI | abc13.com
Mar 14, 2008 ... Andy Schatte is a long time member of Commissioner El Franco Lee’s finance committee and a long time business associate of Michael Surface. ...
In 1997, Michael Surface was the head of the county building department. Andy Schatte is a long time member of Commissioner El Franco Lee’s finance committee and a long time business associate of Michael Surface.
“I was supporting getting out of long term, cumbersome leases that created an expense to us and to the public,” said Commissioner El Franco Lee.
Maybe it was just a coincidence that the first county building bought through a lease purchase was 9418 Jensen Drive. The county was renting the building from a partnership involving developer Andy Schatte. Schatte sold it to another company that immediately did a lease purchase with the county. Commissioner Jerry Eversole made the motion. Lee was the second.
“Lease purchase made a lot of sense to me,” Commissioner El Franco Lee said.
In fact many of the real estate deals now under scrutiny by the FBI are in Commissioner Lee’s precinct.
Take the Precinct One building on El Rio.
In May of 2000, a corporation called El Rio Development LLC was formed. Its address is the same as the headquarters of Keystone, a company run by Schatte and Michael Surface.
Tax records show El Rio Development buys land in October 2000 at 7901 El Rio. That’s the same week commissioners court approves a deal to lease purchase the property. We’ll pay rent on the building until the year 2022 before we own it. Whose employees were involved in evaluating the proposal? El Franco Lee’s were.
At the time, Commissioner Lee ran an engineering firm called ESPA. At the time, ESPA did business with one of Schatte’s companies in another county.
THe power struggle with “breaking news” sidebar is ridiculous...
days go by and it’s not update but once or twice...meanwhile, all sorts of breaking news is posted and removed.
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