Harris County Tax-Assessor Collector Refuses to Purge Voter Rolls

Imagine having an ailment and going to the doctor for it.  The doctor examines you, runs blood work and tells you in no uncertain terms what you have. Great, right?  Then, the doc looks you in the eye and tells you that he isn't going to do a damn thing about it.  Knowing full well what you're sick with, he or she won't help you fix the problem.

Now, think of the 'health' of our elections here in Harris County.  I know that the Republican Party here in Harris County does a heck of a lot to protect the ballot box.  We've set a precedent across the state of Texas with our Ballot Security Committee headed up by former True the Vote stalwart, Alan Vera.  He along with other members of the committee staff the polling places during elections to ensure that integrity at the polling place is maintained.  Alan also drafts legislation to help protect our ability to cast our votes.

There is something else called the voter rolls that have to be kept up with.  The Tax-Assessor Collector is in charge of maintaining the health of the voter rolls.  What ARE the voter rolls?  It's basically a list of names of people who are eligible to vote in our elections.  If you're like me, you think that the only people who should be allowed to vote in elections are American citizens.  Well, Ann Harris Bennett, our current tax-assessor collector would disagree.

Ms. Bennett is aware of the ailments of our voter rolls, and just like that doctor who refused to fix your problem to make you well, she's doing the same thing.  According to a Washington Times article, Ms. Bennett is quoted as saying,
         "Once a person is officially registered to vote, a state may only remove them from the voting list if: the person dies, changes residence, asks to be removed from the list, or becomes ineligible under state law because of criminal conviction or mental incapacity,” Ms. Bennett said in court papers. The National Voter Registration Act “does not create any obligation for a state to conduct a list maintenance program to remove the names of voters who may be ineligible due to lack of citizenship.”

Unbelievable.  I disagree that non-citizens should be allowed to vote in our elections, obviously.  So does our current County Clerk, Stan Stanart.  I read the article and found that he was not quoted in it at all.  So, I sent the article to him to get his reaction.  Here's what he had to say,  

          "This is ridiculous and just plain wrong.  It is her responsibility to investigate and remove all ineligible people on the voter rolls – including non-citizens.  I wish the voter registrar would share with me the names of anyone they know who voted and whom they later found to not be a citizen.   I would quickly turn then over to the DA or Attorney General for investigation and prosecution."

For context, Stan Stanart runs the elections in Harris County and he works to head off voter fraud at every turn.  

More from the article: "Ms. Bennett is fighting a request by the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a conservative group pushing to clean up voter rolls, which asked the county to turn over records of people who’d signed up to vote then later admitted they weren’t citizens.

She is one of what appears to be a trend of registrars arguing that groups looking to add more names to the voter rolls are protected by the  NVRA (National Voter Registration Act), but those looking to trim bloated lists of old or erroneous names are not entitled to use the 1993 law to pry loose records."

 To Ms. Bennett, I would say, you have an obligation to the voters in Harris County to keep our voter rolls clean.  There is such a thing as election integrity, and you should be striving to maintain it. 

Local Government Matters: Pockets of Power

Local government matters, just like the title of the blog states.  The title has dual meaning, actually.  Events that take place within local government are 'matters' and those things are important, or they 'matter'.  However, I can't stress enough how important keeping an eye on local taxing authorities are.  I hope the information I've included will convince you and you'll be converted for LIFE!  Well, anyway, here goes!!

We've all been so focused on Washington, D.C., that we haven't paid attention to our local municipalities and how much debt THEY are incurring.  Tell you what, I'll let you in on something that will (or should) get your attention: Texas has the second highest per capita local debt in the nation!  We are only second to the state of New York in local debt!

There are taxing authorities that no one talks about or knows about; Management Districts, cities, MUD Districts, ESD's, and all of the ISD's.  In and around Harris County and the City of Houston, there are things called TIRZ's that fall under the management district category.  They can all issue bonds and debt, some of them without even putting it on a ballot for public approval!  Now, we can't just eliminate these entities, but we can certainly influence the elections of these tiny towns and pockets of power.

You may not be aware, but May 6th is Election Day for lots of the aforementioned taxing authorities.  Yes, you read that correctly.  So if you live in any of the smaller cities in and around Harris County, you may just be electing a new Mayor or new city council members or voting to change your city charter.  These are the elections where you can make the most difference!!

The Harris County Republican Party is working to empower the grassroots to make a difference during this election cycle.  The party is hosting phone banks all over the county in order to increase voter turnout in what are ultimately some of the lowest turnout elections. You can visit www.harriscountygop.com to find out dates and times of upcoming phone banks.

So, how do you know if you have an election to vote in?  Good news!  I've asked our very own  Harris County Clerk, Stan Stanart.  He reports that, "(Harris County)...is conducting only eight of the sixty two entities holding elections this May.  Harrisvotes.org has been programmed to tell a voter, when they look themselves up, if they are eligible to vote in an election and we provide links and/or phone numbers to the other fifty-four of the sixty-two that we are not conducting."  So, if you're not sure if you have an election to vote in, please go and visit harrisvotes.org.

On a side note, I once personally surveyed 100 people and only four out of those 100 had ever voted in an Emergency Services District election before.  So four percent of the people in that room could have decided the election.  So, you see now, I hope, the importance of showing up to elect people to what I now refer to as pockets of power.  Government really does go to those that show up!