Posted on 11/01/2002 3:24:15 PM PST by GOPcapitalist
Officials with the Travis County Republican Party say there's something rotten at the early voting polls this year. And they say they've got affidavits to prove it.
Alan Sager, chairman of the party, said that at least twice while demonstrating the new eSlate voting system, election clerks turned the dial so that it stopped on a ballot for a straight-Democratic vote.
"We've had five or eight different people say that Democratic clerks showed them how to run the system and vote straight Democrat," Sager said Thursday.
In one instance, Sager said, two people who wanted to vote for a Republican candidate were instructed during the demonstration to cast the ballot for the straight Democratic ticket and unwittingly did.
According to affidavits, relatives of the two voters were not allowed to assist the pair during the incident at H-E-B at 7th Street and Pleasant Valley Road. Sager said he will give their testimony to the Travis County district attorney today.
Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir, a Democrat, said she had not seen the affidavits but said her office investigates any irregularity reported to them.
"Even if I get a vague rumor over the telephone, we do take it seriously," DeBeauvoir said. "Every time Alan has told me some vague rumor, I send out a notice to all locations."
DeBeauvoir said she's done that at least twice since early voting began.
But she said she was aware of at least one problem Sager referred to Thursday and had taken immediate corrective action.
At the Randall's grocery store in Lakeway, the election judge had failed to set up a demonstration of the eSlate system.
Marc and Beverly McCord went to cast their ballots at the store earlier this week. They say the judge reached into their booth, operated the system for them and turned the dial to a straight Democratic ticket.
After Marc McCord made a mistake, the judge came over and "reached in again and dialed up the straight Democratic ticket again and said, 'Now hit enter,' " McCord said. "He sat there and watched while I dialed up my votes. I found out in comparing with my wife that he had done the same thing for her."
DeBeauvoir said the judge has since been told that's not how things are supposed to operate and he's corrected his procedures.
"We have since talked with that judge and said, 'What were you thinking?' " DeBeauvoir said. "We have since instructed him, 'Do not go in the booth with the voters.' He insists he never told anybody which party to vote."
The irony, DeBeauvoir said, is that the judge happens to be a Republican.
josborne@statesman.com; 445-3621
To report fraud
The U.S. attorney's office and the FBI are asking that any allegations of fraud on Election Day, including voter bribery, voter intimidation and ballot forgery, be reported directly to either agency.
To report a violation, the public can call the FBI 24 hours a day at (210) 225-6741. During business hours, they can contact the U.S. attorney's Austin office at 916-5858.
I LOVE FReeper droll humor:^)
Cordially,
During the last session when I was pushing for that bill, I talked to one of the suburban GOP state reps from an outlying county around Dallas. He was arguing that it helped the GOP because his county was majority republican and in that county, the straight ticket votes were overwhelmingly republican. I asked him to take a look at the stats for Houston in 98 and 00. Out of the total votes cast countywide here, we've averaged 54% of voters using that straight ticket option. Keep in mind that Harris is a GOP county with roughly a 55-56 ORVS on any given day. But when you look at the straight ticket voters alone and which party they picked, the Dems matched us in 1998 and outvoted us in 2000. The same thing happens in most urban counties because the Dems, like sheep, use that one button as their ONLY guide on how to vote in every single race on the ballot. Marginal GOP and former GOP states up north have discovered this and moved to change the law, albeit too late. Now they're in the minority or barely in a majority without the votes to change the law. Texas needs to wake up before that happens here.
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