A few days ago I wrote a diary entry entitled Jim Crow Era Voter Suppression in Houston. In it I detailed an effort to challenge the voter registrations of people in Houston’s predominately black and Democratic Third Ward that was initiated by the Harris County GOP for the purpose of disenfranchising those voters. I also discussed some of the “quirks” of Texas Election Law that makes our state seemingly particularly susceptible to such voter suppression tactics. You can certainly skip reading my prior diary on this topic, but it might help give you a greater understanding of the background of this situation as you read this diary. Please read below the fold for an update of the situation.
Background on this Situation and the Texas Suspension List at the Heart of the Matter
A few days ago an article was published in the Houston Press stating that approximately 4,000 voters in Houston’s Third Ward had received notice from the Harris County Voter Registrar’s Office (run by Ann Harris-Bennett) that their voter registrations had been challenged, and they needed to respond to those notices within 30 days or they would be placed on the “Suspension List”. The Texas Suspension List is confusing to say the least. In the simplest way I can explain it without going into hyper technical legalese: if a voter receives notice from the Voter Registrar’s Office that their registration has been challenged, or that there is a potential problem with the address on their registration, they have 30 days to reply to that notice with information detailing the fact that their address is correct, or that they have moved. If they fail to reply within that 30 day window, their name will be placed on the Suspension List, and if they continue to fail to reply to notices from the Voter Registrar’s Office, their registration will be canceled as of November 30th after they have been on the Suspension List for two general elections. Another wrinkle, while on the Suspension List, a voter can still cast a ballot, but it seems safe to assume that some people receiving this notice wouldn’t know that particularly if that individual hasn’t changed addresses anytime recently.
Today, an article in the Houston Chronicle detailed the fact that of those 4,000 challenges detailed in the Houston Press article that first brought this situation to light, the Harris County Voter Registrar’s Office put 1,735 of those challenged voters on the Suspension List without waiting the legally required 30 days. It’s not acceptable for the Voter Registrar’s Office to make such an egregious mistake. Ms. Bennett stated that the problem was caused by a “software glitch”.
Furthermore, the Voter Registrar’s Office has stated that they have “yet to find evidence that the challenges targeted neighborhoods with high concentrations of Democratic voters” with Ms. Bennett saying “If you look at the zip code location, they’re all over the county. It’s not just the Third Ward area.” However, her office has so far refused to release the challenged voter registration list so any outside group can verify that information. As I mention below this is most likely due to strict privacy laws on voter information in Texas though.
And then we have Harris County GOP, who’s Orwellian named Ballot Security Committee is the instigator of these voter registration challenges. As for the initial challenges, Alan Vera, Chairman of the Harris County Republican Party’s Ballot Security Committee, and founder of the Tea Party group True the Vote (more about this group below) who push for stricter voter id and voter registration laws, denied that these challenges were partisan in nature and that:
Vera said he aims to ensure Harris County voters cast ballots at the correct polling places. He said he and a group of volunteers combed through the rolls looking for voters who had listed locations of post offices or parcel stores, where they may have post office boxes, as their addresses.
Voters are supposed to register at the addresses where they live, so Vera said he is challenging those registrations as illegitimate.
“This was about making sure the voter registration records were correct, so people vote in the correct elections,” he said.
If you believe that the Harris County GOP just had the best interests of all voters in mind while pursuing these challenges, then I have all the bridges to sell you.
So here are the three major problems with this situation as I see it:
1) The biggest problem IMHO is that Texas has a law on the books (Texas Election Code 16.091) that allows for any registered voter in a county to challenge the registration of another voter located in that county by just filing an affidavit stating that the challenger has “personal knowledge” of a problem with the challenged voter’s registration. This is a job that should be left up to the Voter Registrar’s Office, because as we see in this case, its ripe with potential for a partisan group (read Republican) group to launch a broad scale effort to challenge voters in predominately non-white and Democratic areas. That’s a problem that getting this particular law off the books could help prevent.
2) Having said that, this situation also glaringly shows that we need better training and resources for our Voter Registrar Offices across the state of Texas. Its patently unacceptable to hear an Assistant County Attorney say, as we do in the Houston Chronicle article, that the Harris County Voter Registrar's Office was unaware of the correct procedure for putting voters on the suspension list prior to consulting with the County Attorney's Office. Even taking the Voter Registrar at her word that her office’s response was caused in part by a “software glitch” still shows the desperate need for better technical resources for Voter Registrar offices across the state.
As to the Voter Registrar’s statement that her office hasn't found any evidence that the challenges targeted neighborhoods with high concentrations of Democratic voters, its impossible to know if that’s accurate when her office won't release the challenged registration list yet, although that’s likely because there are strict privacy guidelines to follow regarding voter information in Texas. We have to have more transparency in situations like this.
3) Finally, are we expected to seriously believe that the Harris County GOP is going around challenging Republican voters? Because I have to tell you that as a veteran of a number of political campaigns in Texas, that's not how reality works, not even in this Trumpian “truth isn’t truth” era. Its especially hard to believe when the Harris County's GOP's Ballot Security Committee Chair is one of the founders of the Tea Party allied group, True the Vote. For a little background on this group, and why its very problematic that there is a direct connection between this organization and the Harris County GOP, especially in the realm of "Ballot Security", please take a moment to read up on a little of the history of
True the Vote from SourceWatch and this article on them from the
Texas Tribune. In short, True the Vote is notorious for launching similar campaigns in several jurisdictions across the country in order to suppress minority and Democratic voters. Aside from operations like voter caging and pushing for strict voter i.d. laws, True the Vote also “trains” pollwatchers for Election Day and has faced investigations at various governmental levels for voter intimidation. I for one, refuse to give anyone associated with such an insidious group even the smallest benefit of the doubt.
What can we do about this?
We can first and foremost, educate ourselves about the election laws in our communities. We must also be on the lookout for instances where underhanded activities are going on that may disenfranchise our fellow Americans. We have to speak out against such actions both to those we know personally and by letting our elected officials at all levels know that such actions are not acceptable. If you have the time and ability to do so, volunteer to be a pollwatcher or an election official in your locale. Vote out officials who don’t condemn and fight against voter suppression, and push officials who do support fighting voter suppression to pass laws that increase the franchise. But most importantly have each other’s backs. To quote Ben Franklin, “We We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
People have fought and died for the right to vote, people have given their blood, sweat, and tears to increase the franchise, and I for one am not willing to let others take that hard earned progress away from my fellow Americans.