A mysterious fire last Friday destroys all of the voting machines in Harris County (Houston), Texas. Arson investigators have not yet issued an opinion. Meanwhile, a well-funded right-wing group emerges in Houston and begins raising unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud. A video on their website pictures only people of color when it talks of voter fraud. White people are shown talking patriotically about the need for a million vigilantes to suppress illegal votes.
In the video, an unidentified spokesman for "TrueTheVote" says, "If we lose Houston, we lose Texas. And guess what? If we lose Texas we lose the country." The former Mayor of Houston, Democrat Bill White, is running against secessionist Republican Gov. Rick Perry this year. White's counting on a big turnout in his home town. The fire and the voter suppression campaign guarantee a greatly diminished turnout.
TrueTheVote's video is well produced. Participants speak in calm and knowing tones, disguising the racist agenda behind their project. We don't yet know where the group's money comes from. But they have money.
As I've said before, right-wing voter suppression campaigns are the most under-reported political scandal of the last 50-100 years. But there's never been anything like the criminal destruction of all the voting machines in the nation's fourth largest city. You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to suspect the machines in Houston were destroyed by an arsonist. Warehouses don't regularly and spontaneously combust at four in the morning, especially warehouses containing all the voting tools in a pivotal city in a pivotal election.
In other details, the suppression campaigns follow a familiar pattern: raise suspicions of widespread voter fraud. Accuse "others" of stealing elections from us (read: white people). Threaten would-be voters with criminal charges. Limit polling locations in poor and minority precincts. Distribute spurious "felon lists" that disenfranchise legal voters who happen to share a name with a felon. Staff phone banks that make election calls to minority and poor voters giving incorrect polling locations and dates. Dress up vigilantes in cop clothes to intimidate would-be voters.
Regular Huffington Post contributor Greg Mitchell wrote one of the best accounts of such a suppression and intimidation campaign in his book about the 1934 California governor's race, The Campaign of the Century. At least since then, voter suppression has been a part of nearly every election cycle.
There are simply no machines available to replace the loss of Houston's machines. That means either a return to paper ballots (there may be very few scanners to count them) or a greatly reduced number of polling locations. The latter would require the emergency suspension of state law and run afoul of the Voting Rights Act. In any case, confusion will reign, and confusion reduces turnout.
What about that TrueTheVote statement, "If we lose Houston, we lose Texas. And guess what? If we lose Texas we lose the country."? That may be the only true thing TrueTheVote has said. For much of the country, Texas is a vast right-wing breeding ground. Actually, Democrats have nearly reached parity in the state House of Representatives. All the elected officials in Dallas are Democrats. Austin, too. Most of the judges and many of the officials in Houston are Democrats.
With a strong turnout in Houston, White could very well beat Perry. Without a national effort to counter the largest voter suppression effort in my memory, that turnout won't happen. Even if the fire is ruled accidental, its consequences remain the same. If a great number of Houston voters are disenfranchised as a consequence of the fire and the right's election vigilante effort, democracy loses, and so does the country.
Keep in mind that population shifts will hand Texas several new congressional seats lost in the Democratic rustbelt. This election will decide the players who will draw new lines in redistricting. The stakes are high. The question is, do Democrats have the will to do battle with right-wing forces who believe they can choose who votes and who doesn't?
Follow Glenn W. Smith on Twitter: www.twitter.com/glennwsmith
Colin Powell got one thing right: It's the Media Industrial Complex
I live in Houston and when I first learned of 10,000 voting machines and equipment destroyed in 4:00 AM fire, the thought of arson immediately came to mind even though a cause has not 'yet' been determined. One thing I do remember is, during the Election of '08, Houston (Harris County) went 'Blue' in favor of Democrats.
I also thought it was quite suspicious that there were allegations of voter fraud suspected by the Tax assessor office of Harris County at the time and the newly elected official at that time quickly resigned his 'newly' elected job. Also later, several judges who ran as democrats during the election changed to GOP 'after the election' because they wanted to ride the 'OBAMA wave' in as democrats in order to be elected...and now 10,000 voting machines destroyed in a suspicious fire?? come on now. I will be watching closely to 'see and to help' in any way to insure that the November 2, 2010 election is smoothly carried out, I have my doubts...In any case, this is a great READ.
Perry has destroyed Texas' education, science, corrections, youth programs, technology, workforce, entrepreneurialism, and much more. He has run the state as if he owns it and it only exists to fund republican donors' wishes.
DONATE to Bill White, volunteer for him, send him encouragement, DO SOMETHING. If Rick Perry wins, it is a bad omen to us all that republicans can steal any election, any time, and there's nothing any of us can do about it (and we can't let that happen).
Maybe, just maybe, some of the companies that make voting machines are willing to put in the time and energy to get enough new machines available.
What a travesty for us Texans who want Democrat Bill White for Governor.
This is NO accident.
I put nothing past the righties -- their criminal acts in voter suppression have been documented for years. Some of them admit that they believe in voter suppression as a strategy.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0810/S00334.htm
http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/9223/republicanled-harris-county-voter-registration-office-admits-to-voter-suppression-tactics
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/limbaugh-admits-republican-voter-deception-blames-democrats
http://forums.somd.com/elections/157945-robert-f-kennedy-jr-exposes-gop-vote-suppression.html
You can vote for whoever you want but it should be a legitimate and honest vote..not a duplicate, fraudulent, illegal vote or vote of a fictitious or deceased person.
Voter suppression??? Intimidation? You mean like in the Black Panther case in Philadelphia?
Please help us register and get citizens to the polls. Read our response to the false allegations and donate at HoustonVotes.org or TexansTogether.org
Thank you!