Greg Abbott and his fake voter fraud article

[sonias]

DUers

There's a good blog post on the Dallas blog about Greg Abbott, current TX Attorney General, using alleged minor voting fraud to justify a new program to suppress and intimidate voters, by claiming that voter fraud is an epidemic. More wasted tax dollars that could be going to our schools.

Here's the Dallas Blog:

http://www.dallasblog.com/guest-viewpoints-2/2006/2/9/guest-viewpoint-attorney-generals-voter-suppression-by-ed-ishmael.html
GUEST VIEWPOINT: Attorney General's Voter Suppression By Ed Ishmael
Like most Republican leaders these days, Texas Attorney General, Gregg Abbott, seems scared. He sees the writing on the wall in large urban counties and knows there is little he or any Republican can do to keep those counties from turning Blue. What with Republican corruption, a do-nothing Governor and a Republican controlled legislature that cannot even fund our schools, the only thing the Republicans have left may well be the one thing Abbott is advocating: voter suppression.

In his recent opinion piece, Voter Fraud Must Stop, www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/13819472.htm, Abbott, takes a well-worn page from the Republican’s play book and twists himself in knots setting up a straw man, voter fraud, which he then attacks. He claims we have an epidemic on our hands but, predictably, offers no evidence supporting his wild assertion. His attempt would be laughable, if it did not involve the denial of voting rights to hard working, concerned Texans and if it wasn't’t costing you and me $1.5 million dollars.

And here is a BOR thread where this is being discussed as well:
http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=108
Debating Voter Fraud/Suppression in Texas

And finally David Van Os responds to The Star-Telegram with a LTTE

Dear Editor:

Greg Abbott's guest column, "Voter Fraud Must Stop," cites less than 15 examples of alleged fraudulent conduct out of millions of Texas voters. For example, 7 million people voted in November 2004. This is hardly an epidemic. What Abbott is really up to is the same old Republican tactic of trying to scare working people out of voting.

Abbott is carrying the "Fear Factor" spear on behalf of the whole corrupt Republican political machine because he is is an integral part of that machine. He's one of their golden boys. At the very same time that John Colyandro was a key player in the DeLay-TRMPAC scandal, Colyandro was a senior advisor on Abbott's 2002 AG campaign staff. Further, Abbott is one of ultra-right wing Republican donor Bob Perry's favorite candidates. Since 2001 Perry and his wife have given over $570,000 to Abbott's campaigns. In December 2005 alone, Bob Perry gave Abbott $50,000 in one check.

By the way, the real fraud on Texas voters is the use of voting machines that give the voters no way to verify that the innards of the machines recorded their votes the way they cast them on the touchscreen. Such voting technology is of highly questionable validity under the Texas Constitution. Article 6 Section 4 requires that the "purity of the ballot" be protected. How can ballot purity be protected when there is no way to know if the vote the machine casts in its intestines is the same vote the voter indicated on the touchscreen?

David Van Os
Democratic Candidate for Texas Attorney General
1530 North Alamo Street
San Antonio, TX 78215
[phone]

Sonia

[PDittie]

1. A tip o' the chapeau here to Sonia

The discussion at BOR containing her comments enlightens us all to Abbott's agenda: intimidate core Democratic voters in order to save GOP incumbents.

Ishmael also did an adroit takedown at the Dallas Blog link.

This is nothing more than voter intimidation and suppression, in action, by the office of the state Attorney General. A garden-variety poll tax on the working poor.

I consider it a gift from Abbott to David Van Os here on the day the Tejano Democrats open their screening convention. I'm guessing we'll be talking about this a little.

[Melissa G]

2. Way to go Sonia! Way to go David!

Transparent Elections! Voter verified Paper Ballots!
Protect our rights to vote the corrupt $&^^$%'s out of office and restore democracy to the people!