As this article from the Houston Press details, a large number of people in the predominately black and Democratic Third Ward in Houston have begun receiving notices in the mail that their voter registrations were being challenged because of changes to their addresses that the recipients of the notices did not make. Understandably some people assumed it was junk mail and just ignored the notices. The truth is much more sinister, but first a little legal background about Texas’ election laws below the fold.
As I’ve stated here before, I’m a lawyer who is a born and bred Texan. Since last September, I’ve been volunteering some of my free time with an organization that fights voter suppression in Texas, and it’s been in that capacity that I’ve gotten the opportunity to study up on our voting laws in Texas.
Come to find out that in Texas, we have a law on the books (Texas Election Code Sec. 16.091) that states that "a registered voter may challenge the registration of another voter of the same county at a hearing before the registrar." As an aside, this is an absolutely ludicrous law that sets up a perverse incentive that this particular situation in Houston shows. While maintaining accurate voter rolls is a must, this is an activity that should be left to the voter registrar's office and not individual people or groups precisely because of situations like this. This law needs to be changed plain and simple, or this type of thing is going to keep happening like it has in other places across the country, and like it is happening right now in Houston.
The Houston Press article details the sinister and underhanded source of many of these challenges:
Archie Rose in Harris-Bennett’s office said that he suspected voter registration challenges were to blame when contacted for comment. According to Section 16 of the Texas Election Code, “a registered voter may challenge the registration of another voter.” Alan Vera, Chairman of the Harris County Republican Party’s Ballot Security Committee, has delivered 4,000 such challenges to Harris-Bennett’s office.
The move was lauded by Empower Texans, a social conservative group, who said it was a “much needed review, after local citizens took the initiative to identify voters who registered at addresses where they don’t reside.”
For those of you who may not know, Ann Harris-Bennett is the Harris County (read Houston and its suburbs) Voter Registrar, and her office is in charge of maintaining the voter rolls for our county.
I also can't believe that the almost 4,000 affidavits that the Harris County GOP sent in all actually meet the statutory requirement set forth in Texas Election Code 16.092 that the affidavit "states a specific qualification for registration that the challenged voter has not met based on the personal knowledge of the voter desiring to challenge the registration."
I feel it is my obligation to let as many people as possible know that this is going on yet again, only this time its in my own proverbial backyard. This is unacceptable in every way. This is throw-back Jim Crow era voter suppression right here. Blatantly racist and nakedly partisan. There's no other way to describe it. This is not something that we should ever allow to occur in our country, yet here it is again happening in broad daylight.
Whether you’re in Texas or elsewhere, be on the lookout for things like this. Educate yourself on the election laws in your state. If you know someone who’s had something like this happen to them, help them find a local or state organization that can assist them. In other words, have each other’s backs. And for the love of all that’s good, vote and get your friends, families, and neighbors to vote too.
We’re all in this together, and only by working together can we help stop things like this from happening in the future.
Tuesday, Aug 21, 2018 · 10:31:12 PM +00:00 · Crazycab214
First, thanks for the comments and support in the comments below. My folks used to take me with them every time they voted when I -was a little boy, and instilled in me the idea that voting is our absolute moral obligation as citizens.
Second, the organization I briefly mentioned in the original version of this diary is The Texas Civil Rights Project. You might have heard about them during the horrifically ongoing child immigrant scandal (although that word hardly seems a strong enough description), but they also handle voting rights issues in Texas. Since the work I’m doing with them is legal in nature, I unfortunately can’t get into specifics due to confidentiality reasons, but know that they are aware of the problem and are looking at all possible legal steps to remedy the situation as soon as possible. Please take a look at their website, and if you can chip in a few dollars to help them protect the vote down here in the Lone Star State.
Third, the Harris County Democratic Party has also been made aware of the situation, and they have already communicated through email and their social media outlets that they are attempting to contact every voter who received one of these notices to inform them that they need to respond to the notice to ensure their right to vote isn’t taken away.
Lastly, as I said above, take a little time to educate yourself about voter laws in your locale. Raise a fuss about this and any other underhanded voter suppression tactics you hear about, both in person and on social media. The people responsible for this action want to prey on those who don’t know their rights and those who may not have the ability to fight back. Make sure you and those you care about have the tools necessary to fight back.
Thursday, Aug 23, 2018 · 7:06:55 AM +00:00 · Crazycab214
As a response to northbronx's question about whether or not the Voter Registrar’s Office could challenge these affidavits: No. The statute in question (Texas Election Code Sec. 16.0921) does not give the Voter Registrar’s Office any discretion in sending out the supsense list notices, unless that notice would be sent out within 75 days of the election, at which point the Voter Registrar can’t send out the notice until after the election.
If the challenged voter receives a suspense list notice, they then have 30 days to respond (see the clarification below on what that entails). If they fail to respond to the suspense list notice within 30 days of receiving it, then they will be put on the cancellation list and their voter registration will be canceled as of November 30th of the even year after the voter has been on the suspense list for two general elections.
Also a further clarification to a comment from Assaf below, what the person whose registration is being challenged has to do to fight back depends on the basis of the challenge to their registration. If the challenge is based on their residency (i.e.- their address), then the challenged voter can respond to the challenge to their registration in written form within 30 days of receiving the suspense list notice from the Voter Registrar’s Office. I stated in a comment below that there was a hearing option available, and that’s true if the challenge is based on something other than residency.
If this whole process sounds complicated and like its rife with loopholes and opportunities for insidiousness like this current case, I assure you that’s not accidental on the part of the GOP running our state.
Also, as long as people want to keep discussing this in the comments below, I’ll keep replying when I get the chance.