The Poorest Loser: Heflin continues to fight the bad fight

[Richardo]

...to overturn his electoral defeat.

Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Last Tuesday, Andy Taylor, the attorney representing State Rep. Talmadge Heflin in his election challenge, told reporters his team had discovered deeply disturbing evidence of voter fraud in Democrat Hubert Vo's 33-vote victory in last November's District 149 contest. By Thursday, the word "fraud" had vanished from Taylor's vocabulary when he addressed a hearing chaired by Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas, the special master appointed by House Speaker Tom Craddick to hear Heflin's challenge in Austin.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/3016589

<snip>

Likewise, a claim by Taylor that Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman supported throwing out the election results she had earlier certified was quickly discredited by a spokesman for Kaufman. "No such endorsement exists or should be construed from the offices of the Harris County clerk," said her assistant, David Bierne.

As the election challenge rolls toward its conclusion, it's become obvious that, Taylor's rhetoric aside, there's no smoking gun to change the outcome.

<snip>

The time for the longtime Texas lawmaker to withdraw from this ill-conceived election challenge passed a long time ago. The test now passes to Rep. Hartnett to rise above partisanship when he writes his recommendations. Beyond that, it will be up to the full membership of the Texas House to seat either Vo or Heflin, or to order a new election.
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Pretty good editorial for the Houston Comical....

[Village Idiot]

1. From an Earlier Post:

CounterPunch: January 31, 2005
So Many Watching, So Little Seen
The Real Scandals of the Texas Election

By GREG MOSES

In live internet broadcasts last week, a Master of Discovery appointed by the Texas Legislature to investigate allegations of a stolen election in West Houston indeed found some 'fact patterns' that looked scandalous, but you can't tell it by reading any press reports. The hearing was supposed to look for evidence of voter fraud committed by Democratic voters. Instead, every time one of these curious patterns emerged, it was a hint of possible fraud not by Democratic voters, but against them.

On Thursday for example, Master of Discovery Will Harnett (R-Dallas), a cum laude graduate from Harvard, noticed that several voter registrations in the West Houston area looked strangely alike. They were all dated late 2003, presented accurate mailing addresses, yet re-registered voters to addresses where they did not live. In effect, the series of fraudulent registrations 'deported' African American voters out of Texas House District 149 and therefore made the voters appear illegal when they attempted to vote in their usual precincts.

So when the defeated Republican incumbent in the District 149 race went looking for evidence of 'massive voter fraud' that would explain his embarrassing loss to a Vietnamese immigrant, he snared the names of these 'illegal' voters and brought them to the state capitol accusing them on live broadcast of voting where they did not live. Instead of proving these voters had cast illegal ballots, however, the Republican team of lawyers actually produced evidence of another kind....

http://www.counterpunch.org/moses01312005.html

[Richardo]

2. Nice....thanks VI !

:thumbsup: