The voter registration group bashes its own underpaid staff as “bad actors,” evokes the incompetence defense, and asks the Justice Department to investigate the county official who exposed their actions.

HOUSTON - Houston Votes responded to charges of voter fraud today with a “Blago-esque” defense by claiming incompetence rather than admitting to fraud, then they lambast Harris County Tax Assessor – Voter Registar, Leo Vasquez, with charges of partisanship.

Partisanship in an election year? Say it ain’t so! Undoubtedly, Leo Vasquez is partisan. Vasquez is a Republican, serving in office, who despite being partisan, is still obligated to protect the integrity of the voter registration process. Are we to believe that Mr. Vasquez ought to turn a blind eye to gross voter registration violations lest he face the awful label of “partisan”?

All politics are partisan. If you don’t believe that, you’ve not been paying attention, or you’re naïve, or just don’t care. What is particularly interesting about the Houston Votes response to charges from Vasquez’s office is that they contradict themselves, bash and punish their own employees and anyone making $10 per hour or less, while demonstrating that Houston Votes is, in fact, an incredibly partisan organization.

A few things to consider:

Houston Votes, which isthe voter registration machine of the “Texans Together Education Fund,” claims to be a non-partisan organization. So, how can pointing out their mistakes possibly be considered partisan?

The Texans Together website describes Houston Votes as, “Houston Votes, a project of Texans Together, is a non-partisan voter registration drive in Harris County. Its goal is to register 100,000 new voters by the October 4th deadline and turn out 50,000 new voters on election day.”

Again, either the people running Houston Votes don’t believe their own propaganda about being “non-partisan” or they’re simply taking off the mask and admitting outright that they are in fact a partisan group.

A cursory look at the Advisory Board and Board of Directors for Texans Together reveals quickly that any claims of being a “non-partisan” group is a sham at best and a con at worse. The names on the two boards read like a who’s who of highly partisan uber-liberal Texans from Austin and Houston. Many of the members are former office holders like Sissy Farenthold or current office holders like Kristi Thibaut, Democrat State Representative for District 133 in Houston and Jay Aiyer, a former member of the Houston Community College governing board who pled guilty in June of 2007 to a misdemeanor charge of tampering with a governmental record which ended his political career.

Volunteers and staff from Houston Votes won’t be found anywhere on the streets of highly conservative areas or districts registering voters. They’re not in it to ensure better voter turnout. They’re in it to insure higher democrat voter turnout. Period.

If Mr. Vasquez had ignored the avalanche of wrongly submitted registration forms created directly by the efforts of Houston Votes staff then Mr. Vasquez would need to be the one claiming incompetence. His actions prove that he is, in fact, doing his job.

The detail of the problems with voter registration forms turned in by Houston Votes is staggering (info from Vasquez report).

• Deputy turning in multiple applications on the same person – sometimes the signatures do not even match

• Multiple deputies turning in applications on the same person – sometimes the signatures do not match

• Same Deputy number, different signature on the Deputy signature line

• Too many applications for one deputy to have possibly done themselves

• Incomplete applications

– No address or incomplete address (just city or no street number)

– No checked box

• Non-citizen box is checked

• Reports that Deputies are pressuring people who are already registered to re-register because

– “The Tax Office Computer system is down”

– “You need the plastic card to vote and you will only get it if you re-apply”

– “It is OK if you are not a citizen, just help me out”

–“ It is OK that you live in another state and are here temporarily, just help me out”

– Deputies who are not deputized are not giving out the receipts to the applicants

– Deputies are telling applicants that it is ok to not put their identification information on the form, just check the box that you have not been issued any identification

Regardless of party, politics or bias, Mr. Vasquez is required to report these issues. It’s his job. Let’s drop partisan prejudice for just one fleeting moment and commend Mr. Vasquez for his good work.

Houston Votes issued a press release today and held a press conference saying that they’ve already addressed the problem and have fired “dozens of employees” for turning in alleged fraudulent voter registrations.

So Houston Votes admits the mistakes, fires the employees, but never reports the issue to the proper authorities, that authority being Leo Vasquez.

Kelly Shackleford, the president/CEO of Liberty Institute which represents King Street Patriots, who assisted Leo Vasquez in his investigation said today,"Supposedly finding fraud and inaccurate registrations in their ranks, why didn't Houston Votes leadership alert Harris County officials?"

Shackelford also says,"They even admit to firing up to 30 employees, deputy voter registrars, for fraud and improper registrations, yet never notified the County. Now, they hope to change the subject. It won't work."

The change of subject would be the charge of partisanship and indignant cries that Houston Votes has somehow been wronged by their own poor actions. Here’s a free offer to claim your very own epiphany; political partisanship is not illegal. Voter Registration is.

Not satisfied with admitting their mistakes, firing the low-level underpaid scapegoat employees and then simply shutting up, HoustonVotes today came out swinging with claims of “reckless and false allegations” from Leo Vasquez and added that Mr. Vasquez "apparently intends to reduce his workload by intimidating people from registering" to vote.

Houston Votes has turned in 25,640 voter applications. Houston Votes applications have generated 7,193 “new” voter records.

Houston Votes applications have generated 3,531 applications which were rejected by the SOS for failure to match TDL/SSN numbers as required by law.

Houston Votes has submitted 1,597 multiple applications (two or more applications for same person).

Houston Votes has submitted 1,014 applications for pre-existing voters.

Houston Votes applications have generated 1,030 Notices of Incomplete information.

Houston Votes has submitted 25 non-citizen applications. The law requires voters to be citizens.

Houston Votes has submitted 325 too young applications. The law requires voters to be at least 18 years old.

Houston Votes applications have generated 129 felony rejection of applications. Convicted felons are not eligible to vote.

Houston Votes has submitted 1,133 applications where the No ID box was checked.

Houston Votes has presented the Tax Office with 1,323 applications later than the 5 day statutory deadline for submission.

How does any rational thinking being take all of the facts above and twist that into an allegation of partisanship or recklessness on the part of the person who discovered and reported the violations?

Houston Votes goes on to characterize Mr. Vasquez’s revelation of the voter registration discrepancies as “histrionic,” “false,” and “defamatory” and asks the Justice Department to investigate Mr. Vasquez.

Fred Lewis, the head of Houston Votes, said, “Those who propagate lies and distortion like those of Mr. Vasquez and his partisan allies are eroding our democracy, and we ask the Voting Rights Section of the Justice Department to immediately investigate and monitor his office and his radical allies.”

Houston Votes goes on to assert that Mr. Vasquez sees the registration of voters as a “burden” and “threat,” claiming that the Harris County Voter Registrar’s office “is continuing its systematic practice of illegally not approving registration applications from eligible citizens despite public outcry and costly litigation,” and then they conclude by falling on the incompetence argument saying, “we were following his (Vasquez) staff’s directions and making common, ordinary human mistakes made by others.”

Houston Votes ought to realize that if they’re going to be in the business of registering voters, they must assume at least a modicum of responsibility for knowing how to fill out the forms and training their staff to do so in the manner prescribed by law. No such responsibility is even hinted at by Houston Voters in their press release or in their press conference. Meanwhile, a truly non-partisan voter registration organization, The League of Women Voters, turns in their registrations with 99% accuracy.

It is an unfortunate truth that we now live in a political environment where the wrongdoer claims to be above reproach, even after being caught red-handed simply by shouting “partisanship” or “racism.” Racism doesn’t apply in this case since Mr. Vasquez is Hispanic so Houston Votes was forced to default to “partisanship” accusations.

However, the slime trail that Houston Votes is leaving in this whole affair doesn’t end with these statements. Houston Votes goes on to state – and this is classic – “Houston Votes’ goal is to register 100,000 of the 600,000 eligible county citizens that are unregistered. The project involves supervising both a large volunteer operation as well as 50 paid canvassers in the field. Because paid canvassing is hard work and pays only $10 an hour, Mr. Lewis told Mr. Vasquez’s staff that there unfortunately were likely to be a few bad actors, but that Houston Votes would terminate dishonest employees immediately.”

In addition, Mr. Vasquez details complaints from citizens about the lies and bullying tactics employed by Houston Votes. Should we simply assume those citizens are partisans as well?

That statement is fraught with so many ridiculous, condescending, and downright pusillanimous assertions it is hard to know where to begin.

Houston Votes details a big goal, so therefore it should be understandable if they fail miserably.

Houston Votes needs to supervise a large volunteer staff and 50 paid staff, therefore it’s a big job and incompetence in managing the staff should be both expected and forgiven.

This last statement throws their own staff, underpaid workers, and their target constituency directly under the bus.

“Because paid canvassing is hard work and pays only $10 an hour…there unfortunately were likely to be a few bad actors.” This is a truly revealing and horrifying statement which reveals the following beliefs from the leaders of Houston Votes:

If the job is hard, you should not only be allowed to fail miserably, it should be expected. If you do fail; however, fire underpaid employees.

If the job pays poor wages you should expect to hire “bad actors.”

“Bad actors!” Do the people at Houston Votes really believe that anyone, particularly in our current economy, who would stoop so low as to work for $10 per hour is naturally suspect as some sort of miscreant or less trustworthy than a person who can find work at a higher wage?

Mr. Lewis and everyone associated with Houston Votes should apologize for that remark. Houston Votes definitely should have fired some people when all of this information became public, but it should not necessarily have been the $10 per hour worker who was doing as they were instructed.

We applaud Mr. Vasquez for bringing these voter fraud allegations to light, and we hope sincerely that the Justice Department will get involved and will do a thorough and sweeping investigation into the actions of Houston Votes and its parent organi zation, Texans Together.

Voters are sick of the politics. Voters are sick of the finger pointing. Voters are also sick of the ACORN-like thuggery of groups like Houston Votes. It is imperative that our elections be on the up and up and beyond reproach.

It is imperative that every single individual, regardless of party affiliation, ideology or even wage - Mr. Lewis - be properly registered and that only those who qualify under the law are allowed to vote.

Mr. Vasquez is doing his job. He seems to be doing it well, regardless of whether he has an “R” or a “D” in the slot assigned to party affiliation. Houston Votes is either not doing their job as they claim or were caught doing a job far different from the façade they strive so hard to project.

John Faulk, the Republican congressional candidate for the Texas 18th Congressional District, sums it up quite well, “What Leo Vasquez and the King Street Patriots have done is level the playing field for every candidate on the ballot. I look forward to winning a fairer election this November.”

We all hope to see a fairer election this year. Organizations with hidden agendas like ACORN, Houston Votes and Texans Together do not lend themselves to a climate conducive to conducting a fair election, and therefore we the people have to trust officials like Leo Vasquez to protect our interests regardless of partisanship. We also have to elect officials brave enough to do their jobs knowing full well that they will be vilified and perhaps even investigated for doing their duty.

Read Leo Vasquez’s Report HERE

See Leo Vasquez’s 72 page detail HERE

Read the Houston Votes statement HERE