This week in the War on Voting: Texas tea partiers indicted for voter fraud

Joan McCarter for Daily Kos

Daily Kos Staff

Saturday April 14, 2012 · 1:00 PM PDT

2012/04/14 · 13:00

no image description available — Voter fraud advocates? (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Voter fraud advocates? (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

In the news this week, James O'Keefe was at it again, proving that voter fraud is a fever-dream of the far right. But alert Kossack rm1948 sent a tip on a story that shows voter fraud isn't just a Republican stunt to try to prove that it's a problem: it's a governing strategy for the Right. The story comes from Montgomery County, Texas.

More than a year since a state district judge ruled 10 Montgomery County residents voted fraudulently in a Woodlands election, a grand jury last week indicted seven of those individuals for illegal voting.
The indictments stem from the May 8, 2010, election of The Woodlands Road Utility District No. 1. Ten individuals listed their voter registration address as that of a hotel in order to take control of the RUD board.

Former Montgomery County Judge candidate Adrian Heath heads the list of people charged with the third-degree felony. Heath declined comment, saying he was looking into hiring an attorney. [...]

According to indictments released by the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the defendants voted in an election they knew they were not eligible to vote.

Heath is also a tea party activist, and (this is perfect) judicial candidate. The group decided that they were afraid that someday the Woodlands Road Utility District would decide to start taxing residents of the area, instead of just commercial businesses, so he engineered an electoral coup, and a conspiracy to commit voter fraud.

(Kossack rm1948 says that the same crew of fraudsters was behind a local controversy to have a fig leaf placed strategically on a replica of the Statue of David that was on top of a sporting good store, where it could only be seen with binoculars. Oh, and putting plaques reading "In God We Trust" in county libraries, too.)

So, there you go O'Keefe. Voter fraud truly does exist. That's probably the most indictments on a voter fraud conspiracy in years. Perpetrated by teabaggers. Who else?

For more of the week's news, make the jump below the fold.

In other news:

In Pennsylvania, the new voter ID law is threatening religious freedom. "The Amish and certain sects of the Mennonite community are among those who object to having their photos taken because of their faith." To get a non-photo ID for purposes of voting, someone with a religious objection has to answer an intrusive series of questions—18 of them—abu their religion, how they practice, whether their family members are involved, etc. Even two Republican state senators, Mike Folmer and Mike Brubaker, think this is an overreach. Of course, the two also supported the voter ID law. But, of course, they didn't think it would end up disenfranchising white conservatives in their districts.
Speaking of PA, are you a student voter in the state, trying to figure out how to vote? There's an app for that.
We don't have a lot of opportunity to say this, but kudos to Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who has asked hte Justice Department to review the closing of 166 out of 352 polling places in Douglas County, mostly in minority precincts in Omaha.

Nelson, in his letter to Holder, wrote that the changes would adversely affect minority and low-income communities.
“It was my hope state officials would thoroughly investigate these concerns, but apparently that isn't going to occur. As a result, I am compelled to request an investigation by the Justice Department,” Nelson wrote.

You might recall that the county elections commissioner, Dave Phipps, is also under fire for sending out, knowingly, polling place cards to nearly 2,000 north Omaha voters, in a precinct of mostly low-income Democratic voters, that had the wrong polling place information on them.
In Michigan, there's a challenge to the repeal petitions gathered by Stand Up for Democracy, to get rid of the state's emergency manager law, the law that's allowed Gov. Mitch Snyder to appoint managers to essentially oust elected state and elected officials. The complaint, brought by Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, is—get ready for this—that the font size on all of the submitted petitions is too small. The Board of State Canvassers is reviewing the complaint.
No wonder Charlie Crist doesn't have a place in Florida's Republican party anymore:

Much is being said about Florida's controversial new voter registration laws, which make it more difficult for people to register and reduce the availability of early-voting opportunities. These new measures appear to be a step backward in protecting the right to vote for citizens of the Sunshine State. [...]
[...] In a state with approximately 18 million residents and approximately 11.2 million registered voters, Florida should be doing all it can to promote more voter participation, not creating barriers to it.

This week in the War on Voting: Texas tea partiers indicted for voter fraud

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