The Harris Voter Registration Scandal of 2009

[sonias]

(To distinguish this from the one in 2008 - the Paul Betencourt one)

Suspect #1 - Ed Harris

KHOU.com video story June 2009
Associate voter registrar's second job raises concerns

A lawsuit filed against the Harris County Tax Assessor Collectors Office is stirring up controversy. The lawsuit accuses the office of keeping people from voting in the last general election.

Houston Chronicle 6/10/09
Associate registrar moonlights by selling voter data
(snip)
A high-ranking employee in Harris County's voter registration office also moonlights for a company that sold nearly $60,000 worth of information on those voters to Republican candidates during the last election cycle, records show, angering Democratic activists.

Ed Johnson is associate voter registrar at the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office, where he's worked since 1999. He's also a paid director for Computer Data Systems, a venture started in 2003 with state Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston. The company sells the same voter information Johnson is paid by taxpayers to manage in a nonpolitical manner.

"No question this doesn't smell," said Harold Cook, a Democratic political consultant in Austin. "It's a government official who has duties involving the election process who is a political consultant who has clients who are on the same ballots he is handling."

Lone Star Project
KHOU Report: Harris County Voter Registrar a GOP Consultant

(snip)
Johnson Reviews Ballots for Harris County Races
Ed Johnson is a high-level employee in the Harris County voter registration department. In sworn testimony he has been described as, "pretty much the one that does everything."

(snip)
Ed Johnson Misleads at Voter ID Hearing
Ed Johnson’s problems testifying at voter ID hearings don’t end there. He has misled State Legislators with his testimony to the point that two representatives have called for his removal.

* Lying to Representatives
Ed Johnson testified at the State Senate voter ID hearing and was listed on the official witness list for the House hearing this spring. His testimony attempted to greatly discount his role in the voting registration and ballot review process. Johnson’s testimony was so dishonest that State Representatives Garnet Coleman (HD 147) and Ana Hernandez (HD 143) called on Republican Tax Assessor Collector Leo Vasquez to dismiss Johnson on April 13, 2009. (Source: Houston Chronicle, April 13, 2009 )
* Lying by Omission
Ed Johnson also failed to disclose to Members that he is a paid consultant working exclusively for Republican Campaigns.
*(Too) Eager to Testify
Ed Johnson was so eager to testify in 2007 that he took a personal vacation day to testify and again made bold claims with little evidence and again failed to disclose his work as a Republican Consultant.
Lone Star Project Documents Reveal Johnson Paid by Republican Candidates

Suspect #2 - Representative Dwayne Bohac

Lone Star Project 6/12/09 e-mail blast
Dwayne Bohac’s Man on the Inside
Bohac’s employee handles ballots for his election and many of his clients

Further examination of documents obtained by the Lone Star Project show that Republican State Representative Dwayne Bohac (HD138 – Houston) sits at the center of the Harris County elections office scandal. The Harris County associate voter registrar was literally Bohac’s "man on the inside" in a position to assist Bohac in his own campaigns and the campaigns of his political clients.

As earlier Lone Star Project reports and local news coverage revealed, Harris County Voter Registrar, Ed Johnson, is also a paid Republican political consultant for Campaign Data Systems (CDS) – a firm founded and owned by Dwayne Bohac. While Ed Johnson has been working as a Harris County employee who reviews voter registration applications and provisional ballot affidavits, CDS received at least $145,000 in fees and payments from Harris County Republican candidates.(Source: Texas Ethics Commission) Prompting closer scrutiny, Bohac himself was re-elected by a relatively narrow margin in 2008, winning by just over 6,600 votes and several of Bohac’s political clients won by even closer margins.

Since the story broke, Dwayne Bohac has gone silent, refusing to answer media inquiries and hastily taking down the CDS website. (See the screen archived site here)

(snip)
Why does Bohac only sell to Harris County campaigns?
CDS claims to sell voter lists and software services, which should be applicable all over the state. However, CDS only sells to Republican campaigns in Harris County. Is this because Ed Johnson is only available to help in Harris County?

One other thing I would like to add is that Dwayne Bohac is on the Texas House Elections Committee. And he's been on that committee for the past 3 sessions pushing voter ID and other voter suppression legislation. Why am I not surprised about Ed Harris and Dwayne Bohac teaming up for monetary gain off partisan elections.

I hope they keep digging. There are at least two lawsuits involving the voter registration office in Harris. Looks like just stirring the pot a bit there is bringing some much needed light into those dark corners.

:popcorn:

Sonia

[sonias]

1. More interesting ideas from Bay Area Houston blog

Bay Area Houston blog 6/11/2009
What did he do and when did he do it?
(snip)
Johnson, his boss Leo Vasquez, State Representative Bohac, and former Tax Assessor Paul Bettencourt who quit before all this came to light are going to have a bit of sunshine on their back end in the next few months. Johnson will probably have all his emails exposed through an open records request. As well as all his phone records from his official government office, his cell phone records, his travel records, his internet activity.

Oh my this will be good. Open records request on e-mail from Ed Johnson and Harris county registrar's office. I would be interested in those travel expense records. I'm sure that's going to stick out like a big sore thumb. Conveniently he had to travel to Austin to testify almost every week before the Elections Committee. And of course while he was here, he and Bohac just happened to discuss business. :eyes:

I wonder how long their mail server in the office is going to be kept on-line?

:kick:

Sonia

[sonias]

2. In Harris County Voter Fraud Takes On a New Meaning

http://halfempth.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-harris-county-voter-fraud-takes-on.html">Half Empty blog 6/09/09
In Harris County Voter Fraud Takes On a New Meaning

Perhaps it is appropriate that the assistant director of voter registration for Harris County, one Ed Johnson, testified twice this past legislative session at hearings on the infamous and now dead Voter ID bill. The bill that its Republican touts claimed would eliminate rampant voter fraud in Texas.

Appropriate in that as it has been revealed by The Lone Star Project and aired at KHOU, Ed Johnson is something of an expert in voter fraud.

(snip)
Because in his role as assistant director of voter registration, Johnson is responsible for purging voters from voter rolls, and is the guy who not only opens sealed provisional ballots but is principally responsible for counting them. Or not counting them.

(snip)
Now it’s OK, in my opinion, to have two jobs. It may even be OK to have a job that is inter-related with your other job, although in this case, the ethics of it is a little questionable. But what is not OK is to have that situation and not disclose it to anyone.

Not disclose it to say, the voting public. Not disclose it to say, the Senate committee on Elections, the body that invited Johnson to testify before it on the Voter ID bill. Twice.

Damn right Hal!

Sonia

[sonias]

3. Off the Kuff blog

Off the Kuff 6/11/09
Chron reports on Ed Johnson
(snip)
If it weren’t for the fact that Bettencourt did so much, especially in recent years, to politicize the Tax Assessor’s office, Johnson’s moonlighting might not be a big deal. If it weren’t for the fact that there had been so many complaints, especially last year, about the way voter registration forms and provisional ballots were being handled, Johnson’s moonlighting might not be a big deal. If it weren’t for the fact that Johnson had spent so much time parroting Republican fairy tales about the need for voter ID legislation in testimony before the Lege, Johnson’s moonlighting might not be a big deal. Put it all together, though, and you come to the inescapable conclusion that Johnson’s moonlighting is in fact a big deal. Vasquez needs to get his head out of the sand about it.

Well said Kuff!

:kick:

Sonia

[sonias]

4. Capitol Annex blog, EoW, Watching the watchers

Capitol Annex blog 4/14/09
Democratic Legislators Call Out Harris County Employees For False Testimony On Voter ID
(snip)

In just the first 20 minutes of Hammerlein’s testimony, he dodges questions about alleged dead voters on the rolls or casting ballots prior to the implementation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), which added provisions that speeds up the removal of the deceased from voter rolls. Too, he began his testimony with a video of a tabloid-style television news investigation that relied solely on the research of a watchdog group to proclaim that (a) two dead voters voted in the 2008 primaries and (b) there were 4,000 dead people on the Harris County voter rolls. The problem with the first part is that in later testimony, Hammerlein admits that his office didn’t bother to include for the House Elections Committee copies of voter rolls showing where the dead voters signed in. He is eventually forced to admit (a couple of times actually) that the sign-ins could be either clerical or voter error of someone signing on the wrong line.

This is an older post but this is part of the Ed Johnson and George Hammerlein aka "fraud hype twins" who are paid political hacks hyping up voter fraud. And now we know that Ed Johnson makes money off of it as well!

Eye on Williamson county makes the link back to conservative website Texas Watchdog which has been working pretty closely with Ed Johnson.

Eye on Williamson blog 6/9/09

The site Texas Watchdog has been trying to "out" cases of voter fraud in Texas almost from its inception. But they’ve been unable to make anything stick as a recent post states, Dead Dallas voter controversy comes on heels of state voter ID debate.

'...Interestingly, mail-in votes may be where the most notable cases of fraud occur, and yet nearly all the debate this legislative session centered on fixing elections at a local polling place. - Texas Watchdog'

That’s basically going the long way around to say that election day voter impersonation fraud doesn’t exist - which is what the GOP’s whole Voter ID/voter suppression debate was about all session - and that where fraud does exist is in mail-in ballots. And nothing is being done about that, or would have been done about that if Voter ID/voter suppression legislation was passed this session. Oh, and bad record keeping by county election departments is a big problem too, which isn’t being addressed.

More proof that Texas Watchdog and Ed Johnson are connected.

Texas Politics blog 3/11/2009
dead vote in Harris County
(snip)
"There is voter fraud in Harris County," Johnson said. "I can't tell you how extensive it is."

Johnson said most of these voters were cleared from the rolls by 2000. He said his office every day compares obituaries with the voting lists.

Johnson said the Web site Texas Watchdog gave his office a list of 4,000 names of possible dead voters created by comparing the registration list against Social Security documents. He said they are reviewing the list.

So when will Texas Watchdog do a story on Ed Johnson? Who is making sure the guy who is supposed to "watch" for voter fraud is watched himself? :grr:

Sonia

[sonias]

5. Brains and Eggs blog

Brains and Eggs blog 6/11/09
Closing ranks behind a scandal

(snip)
Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos’ campaign paid more than $7,000 last year to CDS. She said late Wednesday her campaign hired CDS for targeted campaign mailers but she did not know about Johnson’s job with the county.

She insisted she saw no compromise of the elections office’s mission.

"I saw no conflict," Lykos said.

Now that's the kind of hypocrisy Harris County Republicans are more accustomed to: blind injustice.

Gee, ya think there's any chance Attorney General Greg Abbott will investigate?

Oh Perry you and I both know Greg Abbott won't go near this with a $10 million dollar pole. But I would be interested in getting Obama's DOJ to investigate. That might be more likely in view of the effect on minority voter participation. I'm just saying - it could happen. :)

Sonia

[sonias]

6. What about Dwayne?

Off the Kuff blog 6/13/09
What about Dwayne?
(snip)
Why is Dwayne Bohac routing money through Decide Consulting?

Dwayne Bohac has never paid Campaign Data Systems from his campaign account. Instead, he has suspiciously paid Decide Consulting more than $27,000 since 2004. Decide Consulting was founded by another Bohac business partner, David Moise. This firm is described as a, "software management and consulting business." Decide has no other political business listed on its website or on Texas Ethics Commission filings. These payments may be an effort by Bohac to steer profits to his business and business associates, while circumventing Ethics Opinion 35 which prohibits payments to a business when the candidate owns more than a 10% stake for more than actual expenditures. As the opinion says, "the business may not make any profit on such a transaction."

My, my my. Dwayne Bohac a Republican Texas House representative creating a loophole in a law so we doesn't have to play by the rules. Imagine that?

So who is lining up to run against Bohac this next cycle? He seems like the time is right to get rid of him from the Texas Lege.

Annie's List has someone in mind:

Kendra Yarbrough Camarena
Endorsed Candidate for HD-138
Houston, Texas

Annie's List is proud to announce our endorsement of Kendra Yarbrough Camarena for State House District 138 in Houston. Kendra is a life-long resident of the district that includes Spring Branch, Garden Oaks and the Oak Forest areas of Northwest Houston outside of Loop 610.

She is also a mother of two beautiful children, a highly regarded middle school teacher, a volunteer little league coach for her son’s team (Go Cardinals!), a life member of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, a former member of the SDEC and certainly no stranger to the rough and tumble world of politics. Her father, Ken Yarbrough, held this seat in the 90’s, and while earning her degree at the University of Texas, she worked in the Capitol for an East Texas Democrat.

In recent elections, Democratic candidates have won increased support in HD-138 and Sheriff Adrian Garcia carried the district last year with 52.8% of the vote. And, hometown Democrats like Senator John Whitmire and J.P. David Patronella typically run well ahead of the Democratic ticket in the middle class swing precincts. It is also worth mentioning that Democrats actually perform better in non-presidential elections here where Republican straight ticket voting advantage is nullified.

Additionally, tremendous demographic changes are occurring in this portion of Houston (now a combined minority Voting Age Population over 50%), and mobile young professionals and GLBT families (getting priced out of the Heights and Montrose) are revitalizing older neighborhoods just outside Loop 610. All of that combined with the fact that the Republican incumbent, Dwayne Bohac, has never been forced to defend his extremist record against a well funded, hometown Democratic challenger, and it is pretty clear this race can be won.

That is why we are starting early to help Kendra build a professional campaign team and the resources it is going to take to be successful on Election Day! But we can’t do it without your help as well. With the critical June 30th Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) reporting deadline just around the corner, we are willing to kick-off this effort with a bang.

Between now and 11:59pm on June 30th, Annie’s List will match every dollar you contribute to Kendra’s campaign up to a total of $25,000. Don’t forget, now is the time to take back House District 138. Kendra is the candidate to do it, and it will be one of the two seats we need to win back the Texas House before redistricting.

Don’t wait. Make your contribution to Kendra Yarbrough Camarena’s campaign today and watch your money go twice as far with our dollar-for-dollar match!

Go Kendra Go!

Sonia

[Gulftrout]

8. Interesting Spin

You mention a combined minority voting age population of over 50% for this area. That's a dishonest spin. In actuality over 70% of the voters on election day are Anglo. There's a big difference between voting "age" population and voting population. Adrian Garcia carried the District in large part due to scandals involving the incumbent. Don't kid yourself about Bohac, he's entrenched. He's seen as a local; I understand "Hometown" Kendra recently moved back into the District for this election. Sorta makes her a "Carpetbagger".
The only way this District flips is if it's an open seat with a strong Democratic challenger for Governor. We got W's bud Tom Schieffer for Gov. and Dwayne ain't said he quit just yet.
Not gonna happen, do I hear the sound of Annie's list money being flushed?

[sonias]

9. I know you have a negative feeling about Annie's List, Gulftrout

So there is no point in arguing it with you. Your mind is set.

In my opinion - no district or race should go unchallenged. And you never know in an off year with not much excitement at the top of the ticket, anything is possible.

But before anyone else besides Bohac can win, they have to decide to jump in the game. That's why I think Annie's List is valuable. They show women how to run an effective race.

Sonia

[Gulftrout]

10. Defending 133

Annie's list needs to defend District 133. Kristi Thibaut won't have Obama's coattails this time around. Y'all stubborn, gonna find out the hard way in District 138. Tom DeLay drew this District specially for his former intern, Dwayne Bohac. Spring Branch remains a solid voting bloc of Anglo homeowners that are Republican. Hispanics flat out don't vote in District 138. This is a 70/30 District. Will this be more wasted money and energy?

[sonias]

7. Houston Chronicle editorial

Houston Chronicle 6/14/09
Conflicting roles
Harris Co. voter registrar’s 2nd job creates appearance of bias

Campaign Data Systems is a Houston-based political software company that provides services to elected officials, candidates, and political organizations, mostly of the Republican persuasion.

Founded by Dwayne Bohac, a Houston GOP state rep, the company boasts "an unequaled database of voters along with demographic information unavailable from other data vendors."

One of the company’s more valuable assets is a paid director, Ed Johnson, who doubles as the associate voter registrar for the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office. The firm sells county and state voter data to customers. Johnson is paid with taxpayer dollars to supervise voter registration in a nonpartisan manner.

(snip)
Given the recent history of his office, perhaps it’s not surprising that Vasquez would see nothing amiss in having a staffer responsible for voter registration involved in partisan campaign work on the side.

When the tax assessor stands for re-election next year, voters will have the opportunity to express their own views of such activities. In the meantime, Vasquez should order Johnson to choose between his public and private gigs and eliminate the appearance of a conflict of interest.

No one's holding their breath waiting for Vasquez to make Ed Johnson choose a job.

Sonia

[sonias]

11. Leo Vasquez whines in an Op-Ed

Bay Area Houston blog 6/17/09
Leo Vasquez whines in an OP-ED
Leo Vasquez has an opportunity to put the controversy concerning Ed Johnson, his assistant voter registrar, to rest by releasing his emails, phone records, and internet activity over the last few years. Instead, he whines in an OP-ED.

(snip)
He is talking about a lawsuit filed because the rate of voter registration denial is grossly higher than other large counties, and that his predecessor, Paul Bettencourt quit just 2 weeks after being re-elected, and that there have been numerous complaints about the office concerning voter suppression, and that Leo got the job not because he won, but because he had 3 buddies on the County Commission, and that his assistant voter registrar is moonlighting selling the data that he is in charge of, as well as testifying in favor of a voter ID bill.

Instead of taking tax payers time whining in an OP-ED and stonewalling the investigation, Leo should release the records and shut the hell up.

Here is the Op-Ed:

Houston Chronicle 6/16/09
Commentary
Tax dollars being wasted on frivolous voting suits
By LEO VASQUEZ
(snip)

Recently, last year’s baseless allegations of improprieties within the voter department of the tax office have garnered renewed attention from the local media and various unaccountable bloggers. These attacks are nothing more than partisan “witch hunts” attempting to smear the record of my predecessor and the staff I inherited.

The Texas Democratic Party, in conjunction with the Harris County Democratic Party, went on a legal fishing expedition last fall and filed a nuisance lawsuit against the Harris County tax office with unspecified aggrieved parties and unspecified remedies. They have now realized their hollow complaint has no merit and are moving their arguments from the courtroom to the blogosphere, again claiming the existence of evil witches working to prevent eligible voters from registering in Harris County. They have most recently pointed their finger at Ed Johnson, the voter department’s associate director, and yelled “Witch!” due to his well-documented, and legal, outside business activities.

On his own personal time, Johnson, just like every other citizen in Texas has the right to do, purchases lists from the secretary of state, county clerk, the post office and other public sources. He then merges this publicly available data, provides analysis and sells the analysis of that data to candidates running for office. There is nothing illegal about this activity, and it has nothing to do with his official duties in the tax office. However, since Johnson works with Republican candidates, the partisan witch hunters are now declaring that Johnson cannot follow the law while executing his nonpartisan, official duties within the tax office. This assertion is preposterous and would effectively eliminate every elected official in county, state and federal government from performing his or her office’s duties based on the fact that they went through a partisan election.

I agree with John. The only way this is going to be put to rest is prove that Johnson is not working his political business at work. Show us the records!

Leo is one big cry baby. He's scared of a few bloggers like John.


Sonia

[sonias]

12. YouTube ad on Dwayne Bohac

Who is Bohac Working For?
YouTube ad

Harris County Democratic Party

:kick:



Sonia

[sonias]

13. Charge of conflicts in voter registrar office not "frivolous" (OpEd)

Houston Chronicle 6/19/09
Charge of conflicts in voter registrar office not "frivolous"
By CHAD DUNN

In a recent article, Harris County Tax Assessor Leo Vasquez attempted to dismiss allegations of a serious partisan conflict of interest and problems in his voter registration office as "frivolous." Far from being frivolous, the charges against Vasquez’s office and Ed Johnson, his associate director of voter registration, have come from Republicans as well as Democrats, sworn testimony given by his employees in legal depositions and independent media reports.

Apparently, Vasquez doesn’t understand that this isn’t about politics, it's about right and wrong.

The Texas Democratic Party had no intention of getting involved in a lawsuit when we were informed about voter registration problems in Harris County in 2008. We were forced to file a lawsuit when Vasquez’s predecessor, Paul Bettencourt, refused access to voter registration records as required by federal law. When Vasquez was appointed, we hoped for a more cooperative voter registrar, but instead, he is trying to defend the inexcusable. Vasquez has stridently defended a taxpayer-paid employee who recommends whether or not provisional ballots should count and who also works as a partisan political consultant for Republican candidates whose names are on those same ballots.

The employee is Ed Johnson, who moonlights as a paid director for Campaign Data Systems, a firm owned by Republican state Rep. Dwayne Bohac. According to a Web site that was mysteriously taken down when Johnson’s partisan consulting was exposed, Campaign Data Systems sells data to Republican candidates in Harris County that isn’t available from other vendors.

Johnson’s conflict of interest doesn’t pass the smell test, and during the course of our lawsuit, we’ve found evidence that improper partisanship may have affected the conduct of elections in Harris County.

Dunn is legal counsel for the Texas Democratic Party.
:dem:

:applause::applause::applause:

Sonia

[sonias]

14. "The Inside Man" video by Lone Star Project

www.lonestarproject.net

YouTube video of "The Inside Man"

Next from LSP
Investigations...

Newly obtained documents detail improper and possibly illegal activity by Dwayne Bohac, Leo Vasquez and Ed Johnson.

More to come.... I can hardly wait!

:popcorn:

Sonia

[sonias]

15. Latest news - Ed Harris "reassigned"

From e-mail newsletter today:

Lone Star Project
7/31/09
Breaking News: Harris County Associate Voter Registrar Reassigned
Action by Vasquez is an attempt to diffuse ongoing scandal

The Lone Star Project has learned that Republican Tax Assessor-Collector Leo Vasquez has reassigned Associate Voter Registrar Ed Johnson from voter registration duties to a communications role. Johnson was exposed by the Lone Star Project as "the inside man" to Republican elected officials, particularly State Rep. Dwayne Bohac (HD138-Houston).

Vasquez's actions appear to be a cynical attempt to distract attention from an ongoing lawsuit in which Vasquez is seeking to withhold documents and other records that would likely confirm that his office improperly rejected as many as 70,000 voter registration applications and improperly handled more than 1,200 provisional ballots.

Comments from Matt Angle, Lone Star Project Director:

"Leo Vasquez needs to stop hiding the facts and turn over the records."

"Leo Vasquez oversees a scandal-ridden office. He should fire Ed Johnson and cooperate in court."

:popcorn: :kick:

Sonia

[sonias]

16. TDP statement on the reassignment of Ed Johnson

Texas Democratic Party

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
31 July 2009
CONTACT:
Kirsten Gray [phone]
[phone]


TDP STATEMENT ON LEO VASQUEZ’S REASSIGNMENT OF ED JOHNSON

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie issued the following statement regarding reports that Republican Tax Assessor-Collector Leo Vasquez has reassigned his controversial Associate Voter Registrar Ed Johnson to work in a communications role:

"Harris County Tax Assessor Leo Vasquez cannot reorganize his way out of the numerous scandals that corrupted his voter registration office with improper partisan politics.

Reassigning Ed Johnson does not clear him from his scandalous role as a moonlighting partisan consultant who was in a position to use his public office to help Republican clients who were on the ballot in 2008.

The Texas Democratic Party will continue our efforts to get to the bottom of a voter registration scandal that saw almost 70,000 voter registration applications rejected in Harris County in 2008, compared to only 1,800 in Dallas County.

Ed Johnson may be reassigned to work in communications, but he can’t talk his way out of denying thousands of Harris County citizens the right to register and vote."

###

It's not over, until it's over.

:kick:

Sonia