(TX) Election officials reject report saying thousands of illegal immigrants are registered to vote

[struggle4progress]

Source: The Dallas Morning News

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, October 11, 2008
By JOHN RILEY ...

WASHINGTON – County elections administrators reject the conclusions of a report alleging that up to 333,000 noncitizens may be registered to vote in Texas, saying there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the Lone Star State ...

"I don't think we are, and I have no evidence that we have people overregistered to vote," said Dallas County Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet.

Steve Raborn, elections administrator for Tarrant County, said a two-year investigation by his office of questionable voter registrations in 2004 and 2005 found only three noncitizens on the county voter rolls, and they were later removed ...

The county officials said voter fraud was difficult to carry out in Texas because each applicant must submit a driver's license number or Social Security number, which is entered into a statewide electronic database and checked by the secretary of state's office. Applicants are sent a voting card and officially added to the rolls only if there are no discrepancies and the secretary of state's office approves the application ...

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-immigvote_10pol.ART.State.Edition1.4a8d69e.html

[stillcool]

1. Wow! The GOP is worried about Texas?

they only do this in swing states.

[WatchWhatISay]

2. Perhaps its because RICK NORIEGA is catching up with

Republican (non-hispanic)John Cornyn.

[Maestro]

18. I so hope so!

I've sent quite a bit of money to his campaign. I detest Cornyn!

[PatrynXX]

5. It's not like Texas has always voted red.

Now Virginia.... seems to be red as far back as 72. and realclearpolitics.com doesn't go back further.

[Jack Rabbit]

20. Swing states?

For the Republicans, all states are swing states this year, except for those in which they have no chance at all.

[Igel]

3. I've said this before.

When I got my license, there were some people in line ahead of me. (There was a huge mass in a waiting room, but they only let 5-6 at a time into where the clerks were.)

I paid attention to the group of people immediately ahead of me, to get an idea of what the process would be so as to expedite it.

The black patron wound up going to be helped by a black clerk. She was about to leave, the clerk asked her to register; she demurred, the clerk asked her again, saying she'd be a good Democrat, and the woman registered.

While she was being helped, a Latino wound up "paired" with a Latina clerk. She took his ID, issued his temporary license, and asked him to register. He said he didn't want to, with an accent. As he left the window, she asked him again, in Spanish, and he said he wasn't in the country legally. She said it didn't matter, if he had a license he could vote; he waved his hand at her as he left, shaking his head. He needed the license; he didn't need to vote.

But it didn't matter because he'd just been issued a driver's license illegally. And the clerk, having heard that, still wanted him to register to vote instead of flagging the license she just issued as wrongly granted pending more investigation. This is the foolproof basis on which the Harris County officials say there aren't any illegal aliens registered, because, well, they check their driver's licenses.

I know I'm convinced. Don't know if it's a big problem, but the basis of their confidence is deeply flawed. It's rather like the way the IOC checked the ages of the Chinese gymnasts--the official documents issued by China said they were qualified participants, so they must be qualified because, well, China issued the documents and would China falsify them?

[tom_paine]

6. Interesting anecdotal evidence.

Something to consider.

[stillcool]

10. so your DMV hands out illegal licenses?

and you're more worried about these people voting than the fact that your DMV is handing out illegal licenses? What about the "paired" thing? Is this some kind of suggestion that your DMV is making an effort to coerce people? Where do you live? I'd like to call these people up.

[Hestia]

11. Question - how did you get your license on the same day? They mail

them in Texas, as there aren't laminating machines at the registration offices.

[struggle4progress]

16. Nice catch!

:rofl:

[mbperrin]

23. Let me tell you a story about taking my granddaughter to get her

learner's permit. She lives in the county she was born in, and because she's 16, must get a statement from the school that her grades are passing, as well as a copy of her birth certificate, a certified copy from the county clerk.

Her last name is Petersen, and the school clerk had hand-written Peterson, so she was rejected, and we were told to go back to the school and get the form with Petersen spelled correctly. Did that, and the school clerk filled it out quickly and left out her middle name. Rejected as incomplete, so we went back to school and got a complete, correctly spelled certificate. Now, the birth certificate. We had a photocopy of her original certificate, and were told to go downtown to the courthouse to get a certified copy from the county clerk. When we got there, we could not get a copy of her birth certificate, because as her grandparents, neither of our names are on her certificate, a minor; and as a minor, she could not get a copy for herself. Her mother is away at school completing her doctoral degree, which is why our granddaughter lives with us. What we were allowed to do to establish that we were indeed related was to order a copy of our daughter's birth certificate, which had her mother's first married name on it, AND a copy of our marriage license, which had both her mother's first married name as well as the name she was marrying to, and that, along with a copy of HER driver's license, showed that our granddaughter was indeed related to us (or at least to her grandmother), and we were allowed to get a copy of her birth certificate.

Now, with all this in hand, she was allowed to take the written part of the test, get her picture taken, and wait for the learner's permit to arrive in the mail.

This is all in Ector County, in west Texas, and as a result, I sincerely doubt that more than a bare handful of really determined illegals with excellent forged documents could possibly persevere long enough to get a license, much less register to vote. I don't buy for a second that there are hundreds of thousands illegally registered voters in Texas. I do know that many registered voters are so disgusted with the whole process that they don't show at elections, and I do believe these kinds of stories are meant to suppress turnout so that the party hacks can run things with their 10-20% faithful who will turn out on cue every time the polls open.

Every statement that convinces people that voting doesn't matter just gives over power to the tiny minority that do. And that's wrong.

[EFerrari]

13. Do you seriously believe that if there were a "big problem"

the predatory Bush Justice Department wouldn't have found it by now? They FIRED US Attorney Iglesias because he couldn't find any voter fraud cases to prosecute for them.

[AlphaCentauri]

19. Don't they ask for a birth certificate to get a license?

it will be obvious to the clerk that they can't vote, to much risk for lose a job in the DMV

[LanternWaste]

22. I certainly don't think it's a major problem

I certainly don't think it's a major problem-- or even a minor one. As far as I know, there have been only seven incidents of voter fraud by undocumented workers in TX in the past 35 years.

[snappyturtle]

35. I saw the same instance here in Kerr County,TX! However, this

young adult Latino male registered to vote! He couldn't speak English. Had a woman with him to translate. It was my first time at the license bureau when I moved here two years ago. I do not like the system of applying for a license and voter registration at the same time and same place. It probably was originally done with good intentions to get people registered to vote but what I saw was abuse of the system. imho

[EFerrari]

36. How did you know his immigration status?

Another thing to consider: people going in for a driver's license whose English is limited may also misunderstand and think ALL the forms they're asked to fill out are for the license. But the chances of someone in the country illegally turning up to vote, especially will all these ICE raids, are slim to none.

Since the economy has gone south, so are a lot of workers, in any case.

[snappyturtle]

37. Oh, you could be absolutely right about an Illegal turning up to vote.

I just think it's obsurd to ask the DVM or DPS, whatever, to be the registrar of voters. They certainly have enough to do. However, what's policy here in TX will be policy nationwide when the driver's license people register us for the REAL ID.

All I was saying in my reply was what I saw at the time and that it bothered me. It would be very easy here to vote as an illegal because the voter registration card arrives in the mail just as the driver's license does. It's not that illegals or the drivers license people are deliberately committing a crime....but they may be because it's just part of the system. What's to keep a person with a voter's registration card from voting? Do you think the little ol' ladies at the polling place are going to question a card? I don't think so.

No matter how sympathetic I personally am toward illegals wanting work and coming into the U.S. to get it so they can help their families back home, I also am all too aware of the damage their presence has done to the construction community here. Many men have been displaced here. It's a "I'm damned if I do and don't" if I don't situation. We must work towards an equitable solution.

[EFerrari]

39. Latinos who are CITIZENS have a low turn out.

Latinos who are undocumented avoid anyone that looks like an official.

If undocumented people voted in numbers, Iglesias would still have a job as a US Attorney. They don't.

[snappyturtle]

40. I guess I still haven't gotten my position across. I am NOT going after

the Latinos....whether they vote or not is up to them. What I object to is a state agency registering citizens to vote especially when piggybacking on license bureaus which are slow enough as is. Sorry.

[EFerrari]

41. I get that part. Yes, that is problematic. And it sounds like

the clerks at the window have to turn in X number of registrations or something. That's not the best or most careful way to register voters.

[snappyturtle]

42. No, I don't get the feeling that they're have to fill a quota but I do think

they're required to ask about registrating to vote.

[Puzzler]

4. Wouldn't most (so-called) illegal immigrants...

... want to keep a low-profile? Especially around places like polling stations where IDs can be checked?

[eridani]

12. Bingo!

On my registration canvasses, I've met a few people who probably have questionable status, and they want nothing whatsoever to do with putting their names on a piece of paper proferred to them by a stranger. One comment I've heard at least three times in my precinct alone "Oh, we don't live here. We're just cleaning it up for the owners."

[goclark]

25. I register voters in Los Angeles

And many illegals will just shrug their shoulders and have a look of sadness when they are letting you know they can't vote.

I believe it cost $600 plus to obtain citizenship and that is a lot of money.

[EFerrari]

26. Also years of waiting if you're from Mexico.

I can't help thinking it's by design.

[goclark]

27. My friend had to wait so long because they only had the money

for her husband to be a citizen first.

They have 2 adorable and smart children.
One child is now in college.

[EFerrari]

32. Of my friends, only one family is still waiting. I'm worried sick about them

because there's four of them that are potential targets to be rounded up. They're the sweetest people in the world. One of them has worked for my mother more than fifteen years. He used to watch over her for me when she was alone on the ranch, and he'd tell me stories about home with so much longing it'd tear your heart right out. But, that's how long he's been waiting, nearly fifteen years.

[FVZA_Colonel]

7. I wonder how they'll blame ACORN for this?

[bluesmail]

8. one word says it all: Texas

two words and it would be Texas-Florida. How's that for a coincidence? HA! No need to reply.

[bleever]

9. This bogus "voter fraud" narrative will be shut down.

Stupid R's think they can make this up out of whole cloth, as if their story were somehow equivalent in veracity and persuasiveness just by virtue of them saying it.

Election fraud is better documented and understood since 2004 (and 2002), and since they don't adhere to the "reality based" view of the world, they think their stupid story is equal to volumes and volumes of facts and data.

So I hope they continue with this, because it's a losing game.

The kind they're getting better and better at.

[EFerrari]

28. Tarrant Co. sounds familiar to me, as in one of those counties

where things happen to ballots.

[bleever]

29. Like this?

Fast-forward now to last March's 2006 primary elections, where estimates are that more than 40 percent of votes cast in Texas were on electronic machines. Major disputes and lawsuits emerged regarding the Hart InterCivic System and machine-counting irregularities in Tom Green, Zapata, Webb, Tarrant, Jefferson, Winkler and Duval counties. The 100,000-vote malfunction of the Hart System in Tarrant County was documented in a whistleblower lawsuit involving a former employee of Hart.

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1666&Itemid=113

[EFerrari]

30. Yeah! Like that!

:yourock:

[bleever]

31. More specifically,

In Tarrant County, Texas, a federally certified voting system counted 100,000 votes that were never cast by voters6.

http://votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2435&Itemid=26

Good memory! :toast:

[EFerrari]

33. You know what would be interesting -- to make a spread sheet

With counties where the Thugs claim voter fraud and track the ELECTION FRAUD in those counties. The louder they yell, the more sh!t we should look for. :)

[bleever]

34. You might be on to something.

I'll keep that in mind in the days to come!

[marshall]

14. Even if a few noncitizens are somehow registered, they won't be able to vote

They'll have to have ID when they get to the polls.

[snappyturtle]

38. I'm probably going to get flamed for this but if one gets an driver's

license with "documentation" and subsequently receives a voter's registration card and driver's license in the mail, what's to keep this person from voting? They'll HAVE the ID when they get to the polls. However,I doubt it is a huge problem but can you see it is a possibility?

[rainbow4321]

15. K&R!!

[Maestro]

17. Non story

I work with documented and undocumented immigrants on a daily basis here in the Dallas area. There is no way any undocumented immigrant would try to vote. They are scared to death that their families will be split up and rightly so. I can't tell you the number of fatherless households now because dad/husband has been deported while the company that employed him gets off scott-free.

[ronnie624]

21. Of far greater concern to me, is the use of proprietary software

in the recording and tabulation of votes nationwide, by large corporations that have a vested interest in the outcome of elections, making it impossible to verify any results. I don't expect any news in the The Dallas Morning News or prime time discussion about that on CNN any time soon.

David Simcox definitely knows how to inflame racist hatred in this area. Few things concern North Texans more, with the possible exception of gasoline prices or the latest football game.

[mbperrin]

24. Thank you! Yes, how about a valid count that can be verified?

But as you say, doubtful the corporate media is too interested in corporate voter fraud....

[primavera]

43. What do you know... another CIS report, what a shock

The minute I saw that headline, I just had a feeling this smacked of the Center for Immigration Studies' calculated disinformation. Spreading sensationalist anti-immigrant "studies" which, strangely enough, no one else is ever able to reproduce, is what they do for a living. It is so depressing that those white-sheeted good ol' boys are able to gain reportage in the media simply by changing their name from the White Knights to something seemingly respectable. Be forewarned, fellow DUers, a pile of shit by any other name still smells as foul - don't be taken in by these guys.