Judge rules Bexar early vote ballots are illegal

SAN ANTONIO -- A federal judge has ruled that early voting ballots in Bexar County are illegal, throwing into question the fate of more than 112,000 votes already cast for Tuesday's election.

Early voting across Texas ended Friday. On the same day, U.S. District Judge Edward Prado said Bexar County's two- page ballot illegally required voters who wanted to cast straight-party votes to mark both sheets. He said the ballot format amounted to "a change affecting voting and is ineffective without preclearance from the Department of Justice."

Prado noted that a one-page ballot that meets legal standards will be available for Bexar County voters on Tuesday. He did not say what should be done with the ballots already cast.

According to Bexar County's Web site, 112,015 early votes were cast this year, including 18,202 on Friday.

Tuesday's election, topped by a race for U.S. Senate, has drawn wide attention, in part because of a heated race between Republican Gov. Rick Perry and Democratic opponent Tony Sanchez. Secretary of State Gwyn Shea has predicted that 40 percent of the state's 12.6 million registered voters will cast ballots. In the 1998 gubernatorial election, 32.5 percent of voters went to the polls.

Prado said the county's Early Voting Ballot Board, which reviews early ballot counting, should decide what to do with those votes. Officials at the Texas secretary of state's office, who will observe that review, could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Prado's ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the League of United Latin American Citizens. The Texas Democratic Party, which intervened in the lawsuit, had asked Prado to give specific instructions, but the judge declined, saying that the law left that decision to the ballot board.

Prado said the new ballot for Election Day also has not been formally cleared by the Justice Department, but he said the election should continue as if it had.

He noted that the approval process has been started, and all sides have agreed the new ballot should be used.

In the March primary election, 85 of the nearly 600 polling places were ordered to stay open three hours longer than scheduled because poll workers didn't open them on time.

In 1998 and 1999, county officials had to re-mark thousands of ballots by hand because scanning machines could not read them.

In the 2000 presidential election, some voters waited in line up to 90 minutes after polls were supposed to close.

To read our Voters Guide and other campaign coverage, go to statesman.com/election.

Wasn't this a case of Dems scooping-up every senior, impaired, disabled, and dead voter in the county and bussing them to the polls to vote straight Democrat? Good for the judge.

ACU Launches Nationwide Program for Citizens to Report Voter Fraud

ALEXANDRIA, VA – In an effort to ensure the integrity of our democratic election process, the American Conservative Union (ACU) has launched a "Voter Fraud Hotline" and online communications portal for voters to report potential cases of voter fraud and illegal electioneering activities. ACU Chairman David A. Keene called the effort an attempt to deter those would-be election violators from even trying to illegally load the ballot boxes on Election Day.

"Already in this election cycle, we've had reports of potential voter fraud in South Dakota, Nevada, Iowa, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Texas, and Rhode Island," said Keene. "Obvious violations have included election officials sending out unsolicited absentee ballots, petitions loaded with forged signatures, vote-buying schemes, and even voter registrations who—according to documents—have the same residence as a certain sex entertainment club."

"We're asking concerned citizens to call (703) 836-8602 or email us at voterfraud@conservative.org to report any observed instances of voter fraud, illegal get-out-the-vote activities, or election officials not properly checking voter identifications," added Keene.

ACU's voter fraud project will immediately refer all legitimate concerns to the Department of Justice, the relevant State Attorney General, and the local U.S. Federal Prosecutor's Office.

"Voter fraud is a direct assault at the heart of American democracy. ACU's nationwide voter fraud project will help ensure that violators are punished to the full extent of the law," said Keene.

To report instances of voter fraud, visit ACU's website at:

Conservative.org

send an e-mail to:

voterfraud@conservative.org

or call (703) 836-8602.

All reports will be forwarded to the proper investigative authorities.

I was able to find this, but nothing stating that the ruling was reversed.

http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=857516

Ballot glitches raise threat of long night

By Tom Bower
San Antonio Express-News

Web Posted : 11/05/2002 12:00 AM

Bexar County elections officials were optimistic Monday but could provide no guarantees that all of the more than 127,000 votes cast in the 14 days of early voting would be ready to count this morning.

Flash graphic

Recent election problems

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Officials cited concerns over their ability to verify that a new, two-page ballot was properly marked by early voters intending to register a straight-party vote.

"We're anticipating things will go well," said Bexar County Elections Administrator Cliff Borofsky, who declined to predict when 100 percent of returns would be ready tonight.

"You've got a two-page ballot, there are more races than there were two years ago, and we have more candidates."

Any delay in counting early ballots, which are usually tabulated and reported to the public by about 7:30 p.m. on Election Day, could mean area residents will have to stay up well into the night to get full election returns.

Also Monday, the county received U.S. Justice Department approval for all of the changes it was forced to make on both the early voting and Election Day ballots.

"There never really was any question that these votes would not count," Bexar County Assistant District Attorney Ed Schweninger said, referring to the early voting ballots.

Last Friday, U.S. District Judge Edward C. Prado ruled the county had erred by not earlier seeking Justice Department approval for the ballots.

The ballots were problematic because they required straight-ticket voters to mark their party choice on each of the two pages because the ballots are tabulated with optical scanners.

Today, voters will find only one place to mark their straight-party choice.

Election officials were able to revise the ballot so that all of the contested races are printed on the front and back of the first ballot page, while the second page includes the uncontested races and the nonpartisan races.

With the addition of more early voting polling places, Borofsky said the Early Voting Ballot Board had at least 278 more containers of ballots to open up and count this election cycle.

"Let's assume we have a perfect Election Day count. That could be pushed forward or backward depending on where they are with the early vote," he said, citing the potential for a backlog of ballots if the early vote is not counted by the time polls close at 7 p.m.

Beginning at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, more than 120 members of the Early Voting Ballot Board began opening the hundreds of ballot boxes from the 40 permanent and 11 mobile early voting polling sites, said Jeff Piercy, the presiding judge for the board.

Tom Daniels, a counting station observer for several Democratic Party candidates, said he saw hundreds of ballots remaining to be checked and sorted Sunday and said he expected "tremendous numbers" of problem ballots would have to be examined by the board's confirmation team responsible for examining individual ballots to confirm a voter's intent.

Piercy, however, estimated the problem ballots numbered only in the hundreds, out of the 127,595 total mail-in and early voting ballots cast.

"We're doing very well. We're ahead of where I expected we would be at this time," Piercy said by phone late Monday from the Alamodome, where the board has been convening to do its work.

Although more early votes were cast in the 2000 presidential election (201,588), Borofsky and Piercy said this election is more complicated because of the additional ballot boxes and the two-page ballot.

Piercy said more than 100 members worked until 7 p.m. Sunday and were expected to continue working through 10 p.m. Monday.

He said the board will re-convene at 8:30 a.m. today to finish the job.

"I told my people we want accuracy to be their primary purpose over speed," he said.

Meanwhile former Bexar County Republican Party Chairman Jim Lunz remained skeptical.

"It looked to us like we would be counting these things until Dec. 15," he said, noting that legal challenges could emerge from the process.

tbower@express-news.net

11/05/2002

This would have been a bad thing. Bexar county has a lot of military that votes early. Lot's of Republican votes.

However, GW's Justice Department approved the ballot this morning invalidating the idiot judge's ruling. Expect the demos to contest the ballots anyway.

Bexar ballot is approved
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tuesday, November 5, 2002

SAN ANTONIO -- The U.S. Department of Justice has approved the two-sheet ballot used by Bexar County during early voting, despite a federal judge's ruling that the ballot violates state and federal laws.

The League of United Latin American Citizens filed a lawsuit protesting the two-sheet ballot because it required those wanting to vote a straight-party ticket to mark their wishes on both sheets of the ballot.

More than 100,000 early votes were cast.

By Monday afternoon, county officials had examined the majority of the early ballots and "less than 200 were affected by straight party issues, if that," said Bexar County elections administrator Cliff Borofsky.

However, Borofsy said, litigation might follow the election.

A new ballot has been printed to be used today.

It will require single-party voters to make only one mark on the first sheet.

The second sheet lists uncontested races, a proposed

Wasn't this a case of Dems scooping-up every senior, impaired, disabled, and dead voter in the county and bussing them to the polls to vote straight Democrat? Good for the judge.

Didn't you read the article? The ruling was about a two page ballot. If you wanted to vote straight party you had to color in a box on the front of both pages. If you only colored 1 box, it would invalidate the vote. HOWEVER, it is my understanding that the ballot was approved prior to the deadline. It was after the deadline the dems complained and filed a law suit. I went to vote last week and it was explained to me and was very simple to understand. Also, there was a large box of big paper clips on the table to clip the two pages together. I believe the Election Commission is supposed to make a formal decision but it is my understanding that it will be accepted. And it damn well better be. If my vote gets thrown out, I'll not only sue the Election Committee but I'll file a lawsuit against the dem party and their racist, biased chairman.

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