BREAKING NEWS: Report of Mass Voter Fraud in Houston full of holes.

[Mugsy]

Reposted in full from "Mugsy's Rap Sheet.com":

Breaking News (story will be continually updated throughout the day/week as information is uncovered.)

The rightwing blogs are all a twitter with a story on Fox "news" that "an SEIU (Service Employees International Union) employee, "Steve Caddle" (later corrected as "Sean Caddle") was behind an attempt at rampant voters fraud, attempting to register "23,207" fraudulent voter registrations through his organization "America Votes". The uncovering of the story is being heralded as a investigative victory by the Tea Party group "True the Vote, a citizen-based grassroots organization", according to Fox News. As you might expect, the story is spreading like wildfire on the Right. Also, as you might expect, the story is full of holes and unanswered questions. Since I live in Houston and hadn't heard a thing about this, naturally I felt compelled to investigate.

First thing I noticed was just how little information I could find on this "huge" breaking story. The SEIU website has responded, reporting that Caddle was NOT "an employee" of SEIU but instead a former member of the Colorado SEIU from 2005-2007, and that Caddle's organization "America Votes" receives NO funding from the organization. I searched for a secondary source on the story other than Fox. The only local (Houston) source reporting the story was the local ABC13 affiliate (whose video on the story has been pulled). Not the local NBC-2, CBS-11 or even the local Fox-26 websites have any information regarding the SEIU or Caddle. Not even the city's one major newspaper, The Houston Chronicle has anything on this story. Massive Left-wing media cover-up, or non-story? I certainly wouldn't call the local newspaper or Fox affiliate "left wing".

The ABC story does not even mention Caddle's "SEIU connection". The claim Caddle was "an SEIU employee" (rather than just former member) is an unsourced/unsubstantiated "addendum" at the end of the Fox story correcting Caddle's first name. Also according to the ABC story, it was not Caddle himself, but "20-30 volunteers" who "were immediately fired" upon discovery they had submitted fraudulent registrations. Of the "25,000 submitted registrations", it was found that "only 7,193 were actually for new voters". Now, if you're good at math... and even if you aren't... you probably picked up that 25,000 - 7,193 doesn't equal 23,207 (actual number: 17,807. Now, 25,000 minus 1,793 does however. Dyslexia: the Conservative reporter's friend). And of those 17 thousand, nearly 1,600 had been registered more than once... including one person that registered six times in one day. Not the sign of a sophisticated operation going to great lengths to defraud the system.

I am immediately reminded of the stories of "ACORN submitting fake voter registrations" during the 2004 election. As it turned out back then, it was "volunteers" then as well who violated their signed pledges to sign up only eligible voters. The suspicion was (and still is) that it was Conservative infiltrators... mostly kids... trying to delegitimize ACORN as a corrupt partisan organization behind a massive voter fraud movement. But it wasn't true, and after the story broke, ACORN tightened its restrictions on just who could volunteer to register voters.

ACORN no longer exists (thanks to a deceptively edited video by a Rightwing college student promoted by the same guy who gave us the deceptively edited Shirley Sherrod video), yet, "20% Of Americans (still) Think (Non-Existent) ACORN Will Steal The (2010) Election".

More updates to this story as they break. - Mugsy

Reposted in full from "Mugsy's Rap Sheet.com".

[alp227]

1. All the Houston voting machines were burned down last month.

Right now there's an ongoing arson investigation in that incident. Because voting machines aren't all that reliable, fraud is easy using computers. Not with old-fashioned paper voting though.

Besides, didn't BUSH get into office because the Florida Secretary of State and US Supreme Court pretty much facilitated voter fraud? For example how Florida wrongfully purged a bunch of black voters as "felons"?

[Mugsy]

8. Pot/Kettle

Proving the rule that when the Right accuses the Left of something, it's ALWAYS a case of Projection.

[Skink]

2. what did we used to do before voting machines?

[mcollins]

4. we complained about paper voting. nt

[Igel]

15. We voted early and we voted often.

And we voted in pencil so they could correct our errors.

Right. Voter fraud with paper ballots is impossible.

The Iraq and Afghan elections were tainted because of fraud. They used paper ballots.

[bullwinkle428]

3. Should I hold my breath waiting for an apology from Fox News?

[Gothmog]

5. The Texas Democratic Party is suing Repug voter regis tar over settlement agreement

These claims are in effect a smokescreen to distract from the fact that the Texas Democratic Party is suing the republican voter regis tar over his efforts to suppress the vote. Two years ago the TDP sued this repug's predecessor and forced a favorable settlement. Now the republicans are attempting to use bogus voter fraud claims to distract from this lawsuit. http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2010/09/democrats-sue-harris-county-voter-registrar-leo-vasquez-for/1283465820.column

As it did in 2008, the Texas Democratic Party has sued the Harris County voter registrar in federal district court for what it says are violations of voter registration laws, political favoritism and violations of voter privacy.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday with the federal court's Southern District, is the latest shot across the bow of registrar Leo Vasquez, who on Aug. 24 accused two Democratic-leaning activist groups of organized and systematic voter fraud involving more than 5,000 applications for voter registrations.

The lawsuit takes exception to Vasquez' making public the voter registration applications in question and making them available to a Tea Party activist group called the King Street Patriots, which has publicly pledged to monitor voter fraud in Texas. The suit says Vasquez "resisted" turning over the same documents to officials with the Harris County and Texas Democratic Party organizations.

The lawsuit also accuses Vasquez of violating a 2008 settlement of a lawsuit accusing his predecessor, Paul Bettencourt, of practices that blunted the ability of citizens to register to vote in a timely way. Both are Republicans. The original suit was settled without Bettencourt addressing whether the allegations against him were true or false.

"Given Mr. Vasquez' actions last week, we have been forced to take legal action to make sure his office does not repeat the same kind of practices that denied almost 70,000 Harris County citizens the right to register and vote in 2008," the Texas Democratic Party said in a press release issued after the suit was filed.

The repugs are working with this teaparty group to try to make claims of voter fraud to distract attention from the fact that the republicans are violating a settlement agreement.

[Gothmog]

6. Here is the statement of TDP Chair Boyd Richie on this lawsuit

Again,the repugs are using their old tricks of making bogus claims about voter fraud to try to divert attention away from the fact that the repugs were caught violating a settlement agreement and not properly registering voters. The Texas Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit to enforce the settlement agreement. Here is the statement of TDP Chair Boyd Richie http://www.lonestarreport.org/Home/tabid/38/EntryId/746/Democrats-sue-Harris-County-voter-registrar.aspx

“In 2008, the Texas Democratic Party was forced to take legal action in Federal Court to protect Harris County voters from the inappropriate, partisan actions of former Voter Registrar Paul Bettencourt, whose office rejected tens of thousands of legitimate voter registration applications.

“When Leo Vasquez took office following Bettencourt's sudden resignation after the 2008 election, he defended his predecessor's actions. However, when the Texas Democratic Party presented the Court evidence of the serious misdeeds in the Harris County voter registration office, Vasquez ultimately agreed to a settlement, providing hope that those inappropriate practices had come to an end.

“Unfortunately, we believe Leo Vasquez violated the terms of our agreement last week, based on statements and information he distributed at a press conference that resembled a political pep rally. At that event, Vasquez made reckless accusations against a non-partisan organization based on a 'review' of voter registration applications conducted by a group called 'True the Vote.' In order to conduct such a review, Vasquez apparently provided the group access to the same applications he refused to provide the Texas Democratic Party last year, when he argued in Federal Court that such documents contained confidential information such as date of birth.

“All Harris County residents should be deeply disturbed by how easily this office disregards election law and federal court orders and by how casually they distribute voters’ confidential information. <...>

"Given Mr. Vasquez' actions last week, we have been forced to take legal action to make sure his office does not repeat the same kind of practices that denied almost 70,000 Harris County citizens the right to register and vote in 2008."

AGain, these charges agaisnt Houston Votes are bogus and are designed to hide the fact that the Harris Country republicans are violating a settlement agreement.

I am proud of the TDP and the Harris Country Democrats for defending voter rights

[Mugsy]

10. Looking

I'll look into this. Thanks.

[Gothmog]

12. I was on the Obama voter protection team in 2008

If you need any help, let me know.

[Mugsy]

13. Help

Any help anyone can provide is appreciated.

[Gothmog]

14. Here are some more articles on this story

http://firedoglake.com/2010/09/05/contempt-for-democracy-attacks-on-voting-rights/

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_61213.shtml

http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=30822

http://www.truth-out.org/houston-voting-machine-fire-update-and-shouting-voter-fraud-a-crowded-midterm-election63517

[Gothmog]

7. The Teabagger group making claims were caught in other lies

The teabaggers who are making the charges of voting fraud were caught photoshopping some pictures for their video. The Huffington Post did a good job of exposing these liars http://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-w-smith/right-wing-voter-suppress_b_706550.html Again, these idiots are not only liars but bad liars at that.

[Mugsy]

9. Linked?

Can we link the Houston "King Street Patriots" to the group behind this story?

Apparently so: http://www.northhoustonteaparty.com/true-the-vote/

Turns out "True the Vote" is the North Houston branch of the KSP's.

[Gothmog]

11. These two groups are clearly linked

These two groups are linked. This is nothing more than typical republican smoke screen tactics to try to hide the fact that the republican in charge of voter registration is being sued again. The Texas Democratic Party sued this office two years ago and got a favorable settlement. The gop want to violate that settlement agreement and a good way to hide these violations is to make claims about voter fraud.

You might check but the video discussed in the huffington post article may have been from both groups

[Gothmog]

16. TPM has a good article on the use of bogus voter fraud allegations by repugs

Conservatives have been using bogus claims of voter fraud to justify voter suppression tactics for years. TPM has a good article outlining this history and discussing the Houston claims. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/09/despite_dearth_of_evidence_right_wing_voter_fraud.php?ref=fpb This is a decent article on the issue.

The claims of voter fraud in Harris county by the teabaggers fit into the country wide pattern of using bogus claims of voter fraud to attempt to hide voter suppression efforts.