Texans Together Calls For US Justice Investigation Of Greg Abbott

All things considered in this high election season, many are quite surprised that the bombshell revelation that Attorney General Greg Abbott ordered an armed police raid of a Houston voter group has not received more attention from news media.  But the low profile of this case could soon be changing very quickly.

This is bold request from the advocacy group Texans Together, and it’s aimed squarely at Greg Abbott, and the Harris county Clerk’s office…

We recently made a formal, written request to the U.S. Justice Department to immediately investigate Texas and Harris County officials for voter suppression in Harris County (see letter here). We are asking for a federal investigation of not only the Texas Attorney General’s Office, but also Harris County election officials for their long history of impeding minority voter registration and voting.
We believe the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector should be investigated thoroughly for their many years of wrongful registration denials and delays as well as their incompetent processing of registration applicants. We also are seeking an investigation that the Justice Department look at the apparent politicization of the Harris County Clerk’s election administration.
As for the Texas Attorney General’s Office (AG), our letter points out that the AG falsely accused Houston Votes of “voter fraud” and effectively shut down our voter registration drive in 2010. The AG’s theory was that our voter registration drive was engaged in felony identity fraud, for simply keeping records of the people we registered to ensure that County authorities properly registered them and so that we could remind them to vote. No wonder after raiding us with six officers with guns and flak jackets, and investigating for 11 months, the AG dropped their oppressive investigation without ever notifying us. Under its absurd theory, every voter registration and turnout drive in the country would be a criminal enterprise.
Even after the original story was uncovered by the Dallas Morning News, no one had heard directly from those formerly with Houston Votes, and the whole issue never went any further than the original report (and a dedicated circle of bloggers, of course).  Off the KuffNeil Aquino and Dos Centavos were actively covering the Houston Votes saga when the first allegations were waged in 2010.

The whole reason for Abbott’s illegal, oppressive raid of Houston Votes in the first place?  Lies from the King Street Patriots, a Houston-area TEA Party group that also spawned True the Vote in 2012.  They claimed that Houston Votes had falsified thousands of voter registration documents.  After a lot of drama staged by True the Vote, no evidence was actually found, but Abbott and his TEA minions got what they wanted anyway… to silence minority voices in Harris County.

This needs to be a national story, and soon.  But for the moment, the best thing you can do is share posts like this one and let people know what’s going on.

Texoblogosphere: Week of September 29th

The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes everyone read at least one banned book last week as it brings you this weeks’ roundup.

Off the Kuff presents interviews with two of the many dynamic and well-qualified Democratic women running for legislative offices this year, Rita Lucido in SD17 and Susan Criss in HD23.

Libby Shaw writing for Texas Kaos and Daily Kos laments the dire consequences of voting Republican or of not voting at all. Oh come on Texas, surely we can do better than THIS?

From WCNews at Eye on Williamson. Abbott’s transportation TV ad is full of dissembling, Abbott’s Fundamentally Dishonest Transportation Ad.

Eric Holder was certainly not as bad as Alberto Gonzales, but his tenure as US attorney general still did not merit a passing grade, at least according to PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Neil at All People Have Value said there is no inherent conflict between involvement in traditional politics, while at the same time looking for non-conventional protests and movements as a way also to move society in a better direction. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

Though the new routes are far from being finalized,Texas Leftist shares that Houston METRO has now fully committed to the System Reimagining Plan. After this week’s vote by the METRO board, there’s no turning back.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

SciGuy gives us a look at Russia’s astronaut training facility.

Newsdesk reports on Rep. Dawnna Dukes’ abortion disclosure.

The Great God Pan Is Dead argues for the elimination of art fairs.

Texas Clean Air Matters cheers Austin and San Antonio’s leadership in clean energy.

Andre Grimes points and laughs at Breitbart Texas.

The Bloggess encourages you to support your local no-kill animal shelter.

The TSTA blog calls out Greg Abbott for lying about his authority as AG to settle the school finance lawsuit.

The Current has more reporting on the shady practices and uninformed advice at crisis pregnancy centers.

Scott Braddock tells the tale of a wingnut catfight.

 

This week features pictures of Beaumont, Texas…

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