"Republicans say 16,000 registered Hidalgo County voters are ineligible or dead"

dfw and wire service sources ^ | Nov. 03, 2002 | dfw and wire service sources

[Dubya]

EDINBURG, Texas - The Hidalgo County Republican Party wants to create a bipartisan voter roll task force following a study indicating that 16,000 of the county's registered voters are ineligible or dead.

Hollis Rutledge, chairman for the party, released the study's findings during a news conference Oct. 22. He had withheld release of the full report to the county election commission because he said its release needed to be approved by executive Republican party members, who paid for the study.

Republican committee members unanimously voted to create the task force. Rutledge said in a story in Sunday's editions of The (McAllen) Monitor that he would send a proposal on the task force to the election commission Monday.

Elections Administrator Teresa Navarro said she was disappointed the party decided not to share the information.

"I would think that they would want to work with us at least on the deceased (voter names) part and I'm disappointed that they wouldn't at least agree to that part, especially when they made allegations with it," she said.

"We were waiting to see what was going to happen today and now we know what we need to do to proceed. On Monday, I will request to the secretary of state, attorney general and the district attorney's office that they issue a grand jury subpoena for the deceased (names)."

"I don't think the party has denied anybody anything," Rutledge said. "The party's position today (Saturday) was we would offer the information, but the party's position was that they would like to offer it by way of a task force that was completely bipartisan in nature."

The study indicates that 4,223 people on the county's voter rolls - including 227 who are shown to have voted in the March primary - are probably dead. Navarro said she cannot begin to remove these names until she has seen the list and the sources used to confirm each death.

Rutledge said the study began in May and was done through Voter Views Information Systems, an Austin-based company that the county Republican Party contracts to run its primary elections. Party members were shocked when they received the study's findings and did not time the information's release in an attempt to affect voter turnout, Rutledge added.

"We found that there were dead people in the report dating back to 1982," he said. "It's absolutely ludicrous. This is absolute blatant incompetence on the part of the elections department. It's absolutely incredible."

Navarro said determining whether a voter is dead is much more complicated than the study indicates and said Rutledge intended to cast doubt on the elections department.

"It's to smear the integrity of the elections department, but they're not only doing that," she said. "They're smearing the integrity of the secretary of state's office and if they're trying to intimidate the voters. That is wrong."

[sawsalimb]

Navarro said determining whether a voter is dead is much more complicated than the study indicates and said Rutledge intended to cast doubt on the elections department.

Where to start....

[Dubya]

Hard to figer out under present laws. I figer the R are getting smart enough at the bad voted that get counted that there will be several lawsuits after elections this year.

[lelio]

Republicans are the anti-corspe-ite party

[Prince Caspian]

they're trying to intimidate the voters.

And exactly which voters would be intimidated by this? Dead ones? Doubtful.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I can hear the talking heads rhetoric, now. "The Republicans want to disenfranchise the dead!" and the morons over at DU will repeat it with scandalous tones like the good little useful idiots they are.

[janetgreen]

dating back to 1982

They've only had twenty years to start correcting this problem... gee, give them some time!

[Republic of Texas]

It's well known in Texas that the Republicans always attempt to intimidate dead voters. It's like they don't like them or something.

[Pookie Me]

"The Republicans want to disenfranchise the dead!"

LET THE DEAD VOTE IN PEACE, er, I mean, rest in peace...

Pookie & Me

[Republic of Texas]

Hopefully, the Republicans will learn to fight hard, and loud, when it comes to defeating the Dem's election fraud. It worked in Florida, barely, and will work agian if the Republican Party makes a true commitment to fighting fraud, and WINNING.

[Dubya]

I hope we will do that. It seems to me if we make fight hard to keep their ill. vote and spend enought money they will slack up on it.

[lelio]

Is the only way for the dead to vote is for a live person to fake that they are that dead person, go to a polling area, and then cast the vote? (other than absentee voting that is)
I hate to say it as I'm a pro-privacy nut but I think the only way to stop this is to have each voter give up something that's personal to them, like their fingerprint or to have their face scanned. At the end of the day see if you have any doubles, then throw away that information.
Course that brings in more problems, like crooked workers accidently erasing their video tape, people keeping fingerprint records, etc.

[foghornleghorn]

Typical demon rat response. "Oh, you're trying to stop the rats' fraud? You are 'intimidating' voters!"

[Dubya]

[Dubya]

LOL. True statement

[Dubya]

Maybe rewriting the voting laws will help.

[FITZ]

It's well known in Texas that the Republicans always attempt to intimidate dead voters. It's like they don't like them or something.

I don't like them because they smell like democrats.

[sawsalimb]

Joking aside,voting in this country is way too easy. If I had my way,nobody would be able to vote without showing a tax return. Why a tax return? To ensure that the people voting are the ones that are paying for what's being voted on.

[FITZ]

Navarro said determining whether a voter is dead is much more complicated than the study indicates

Only a true Democrat could come up with something like that.