republican Distraction

GOP Dirty Election Tricks in Texas

Sat Sep 11th 2010, 07:07 AM
Something stinks in Houston.

On Aug. 27, all of the Democratic stronghold’s 10,000 voting machine were destroyed in a fire which is described as probably arson. Houston is the (huge) home city of Mayor Bill White who is giving Gov. Rick “Goodhair” Perry a run for his money this year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/us/polit...

Polls show that Perry and White are in a tight race. A Zogby poll from Sept 8 shows incumbent Perry leading White by only 3 points.

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/arc...

That may be why Perry is up to his usual election year tricks. Recall that in 2006, the Teamsters, who supported Perry, declared a bus strike inside the city of Fort Worth, Texas a couple of days before the election. While other cities in Texas had huge turnouts on election day, Fort Worth’s voting that day was relatively slow----probably because the Democratic voters who relied on the city bus system to get to the polls had no transportation. The strike ended abruptly without any gains for employees immediately after the election.

If you pay attention to Texas news, you also know that Perry’s chief of staff Mike Toomey was caught trying to get a Green candidate on this fall’s ballot, presumably to either siphon off Democratic votes or (more likely) to allow election officials to shift some votes from White to the Green. The e-voting system in Texas is notorious for its inaccuracy.

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/arc...

In another story, the Rick Perry campaign was paying the salary of a staffer, Stuart Moss at the same time he was getting Green candidates in the Texas ballot.

http://www.oaoa.com/articles/texas-50656-a...

Back to the integrity of Texas elections. Just how bad is e-voting in Texas? Check this out:

http://texaspopulists.org/book/export/html...

In 2009, state Democrats managed to derail plans for a Poll Tax in their state. By “poll tax” I refer, of course, to a strict voter ID law, of the kind that was ruled illegal in Georgia. Republicans vow to try again next year.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/06/14/22...

Despite not having a poll tax, it looks like Perry will have an easy election, now that voters in White’s own city of Houston will have to scramble for election machines. Shades of Ohio, 2004.