Dunning allies helped gather ballots
He says he was not aware of practice, promises to end it
02/13/2002
Two political operatives working on behalf of Dallas mayoral candidate Tom Dunning have run door-to-door campaigns to collect dozens of mail-in ballots from senior citizens – a practice Mr. Dunning said his campaign would not use.
Mr. Dunning and former City Council member Laura Miller, his opponent in Saturday's runoff, have both sworn off the practice of harvesting ballots from homebound senior citizens. They cited concerns that the strategy is prone to abuse by untrained or overzealous campaign workers.
However, Terrence Gore, a community activist, said he is running mail-in ballot operations for Mr. Dunning and expects to be paid. Also, a resident of the Park Manor apartments in South Dallas said she expects to be paid for gathering votes for Mr. Dunning at the request of state Rep. Terri Hodge, a Dunning supporter.
Two apartment residents said that someone else marked their ballots and that they did not know which candidate they voted for.
Ms. Hodge said any improprieties took place without her knowledge.
Mr. Dunning said Tuesday that he does not know Mr. Gore, but he said that his campaign is paying Mr. Gore's mother, Jan, to run a phone bank in southern Dallas. Mr. Dunning said that his campaign is not paying Ms. Hodge.
"I am not aware that she is doing anything other than going out and saying that she supports me," Mr. Dunning said. "We are not doing mail-in ballots. ... That is not supposed to be happening."
If the statements of the operatives are true, Mr. Dunning said, "we need to disclose all of this to whoever looks into this."
A Miller campaign worker picked up 500 applications for mail-in ballots on Jan. 31, according to county election office records. Ms. Miller said that when she learned of it, she directed that the applications be discarded.
Two Miller campaign workers said they threw out the applications.
Interviews with voters who applied to vote by mail discovered no instances of Miller campaign workers going door-to-door to harvest senior citizens' mail ballots.
"It's abuse to go into someone's home and instruct them in voting and handle their ballots, and I'm not going to do it," Ms. Miller said.
Mr. Gore, during an interview Tuesday, said his activities have been legal.
"My sole reason is to help my seniors vote," he said.
Mr. Gore said he has gathered 76 mail-in ballots from senior citizens in the mayoral runoff – mostly in southern Dallas and Oak Cliff.
Ms. Hodge, D-Dallas, endorsed Mr. Dunning at a news conference Jan. 7. Since then, she has been directing a mail-in ballot campaign for him in the Park Manor apartments just south of downtown, said Evelyn Massey, president of the residents' association in the high-rise building.
Ms. Massey, 69, said she has marked ballots and signed the names of her fellow residents on official ballot envelopes during the mayor's race.
The law allows a person to assist another in marking a ballot – but only if the helper discloses his participation by signing his own name as a "witness" on the ballot envelope. The helper is not allowed to suggest "by word or deed" which candidate the voter should choose.
Ms. Hodge said Tuesday that she brought voting irregularities at the apartments to the attention of the county election office after she became aware of them earlier this week.
Ms. Hodge pledged to help educate the seniors about election law.
"I'll tell them [the senior citizens] the process so this won't happen anymore," Ms. Hodge said.
Ms. Massey identified her main contact during the campaign as Felicia Ann Pitre, who manages Ms. Hodge's Dallas legislative office.
Ms. Pitre was indicted Tuesday for her alleged activities harvesting mail-in ballots during last year's City Council races. The charges include one felony and one misdemeanor.
Ms. Massey said, "I'm for Dunning because Miss Terri is for Dunning. I do what they want."
Mildred Stafford, 73, a Park Manor resident, said she received her brown ballot package in the mail for the mayor's election and turned it over to Ms. Massey without opening it.
"I just gave it to her," Ms. Stafford said.
Inside was the ballot and the so-called carrier envelope. After marking the ballot, the voter is supposed to place it in the carrier envelope, seal and sign the outside of the envelope, and mail it to the county office, where it is counted.
But how could Ms. Stafford have voted if she never marked a ballot? "I thought maybe I was supposed to do something on that," she answered.
Mr. Dunning said that he does not know Ms. Massey and that his campaign does not have a strategy to cull votes from Park Manor residents. As a candidate, he has been critical of the mail-in practice.
"There will be no vote-brokering from the Tom Dunning for Mayor campaign," he told a forum of black journalists on Dec. 7. "It just doesn't sound right to me. ... I think it's in bad taste."
He acknowledged Tuesday that the comments from Ms. Massey and Mr. Gore contradict his earlier promises.
"Of course it does," he said. "That is not supposed to be happening."
During an interview last week, Ms. Massey said she thought she could legally mark her fellow residents' ballots and sign their names on the envelope because she is a deputy voter registrar.
Under the law, deputy voter registrars are volunteers who are allowed to register voters. But the law gives them no power to handle ballots or carrier envelopes.
State law allows people to vote by mail if they are 65 years old, disabled or plan to be out of the county during the weeks of early voting and on Election Day.
County records show that 60 Park Manor residents, all older than 65, requested mail-in ballots for the mayoral runoff election.
But some of their ballots may be thrown out because the signatures on the application for the ballot and the carrier envelope do not match, county officials said.
A board reviewing votes cast in last month's mayoral election voided the votes of four Park Manor residents.
Bruce Sherbet, Dallas County elections administrator, said that Ms. Massey's statements will trigger a review of all mail-in ballots that come from Park Manor for the runoff contest.
"I'm encouraging the ballot board to inspect these closely," Mr. Sherbet said.
Park Manor, which is operated by the Dallas Housing Authority, is home to about 210 low-income senior citizens. Ms. Hodge, who helped sponsor the Thanksgiving Day dinner, is popular among the residents.
Hiew Branch, 68, who uses a wheelchair, said he always votes with the help of Ms. Hodge. He said he voted in the mayor's race but didn't know for whom he voted.
"I told you," he said. "Ms. Terri votes for me."
Mr. Gore described himself as a subcontractor for his mother. "I'm helping her do her job in this mail-in ballot area," he said.
Mr. Gore said he brings applications for mail-in ballots to seniors. After they sign the application, he said, he leaves his name and telephone number with them in case they need his help to read the ballot or interpret the instructions.
"I have never handled a ballot outside the presence of the voter," he said.
Mr. Dunning said he does not disapprove of his campaign delivering an application for a ballot to someone who requested one. But the follow-up described by Mr. Gore "violates what I think should happen in a campaign," he said.
"If I had known it, I would have stopped it immediately," he said.
Chris Heinbaugh of WFAA-TV contributed to this report.