Posted by Melissa Clouthier on Oct 19 2010 Filed under Featured, Politics, Tea Party. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Mediaite’s Tommy Christopher reports voter intimidation in Harris County, Texas (Houston) by volunteer poll watchers trained by King Street Patriots, a local non-partisan group who started the True The Vote campaign. Tommy leads with this inflammatory paragraph saying:

In a story that’s sure to draw comparisons to the New Black Panther Party member who brandished a nightstick at a Philadelphia polling place in 2008, a Tea Party group called the King Street Patriots has been accused of “1960s style” voter intimidation in primarily minority precincts on the first day of early voting in Texas. The group is being sued by the Texas Democratic Party, following the filing of 14 voter intimidation complaints with the county clerk, and another two dozen with the Texas Democratic Party chairman.

Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of King’s Street Patriots strongly denies the allegations and noted that it was absurd that “little old ladies” would be intimidating anyone. She says that one 65 year old woman poll watcher came back from poll watching, after being kicked out for simply being present–itself a violation of the law–in tears.

Engelbrecht also notes that King’s Street Patriots learned they were being sued by the Texas Democratic Party at 11 a.m. yesterday morning when not one poll watcher had yet been removed and not one complaint sent to the county about any untoward actions.

In one instance, three poll watchers were yelled at by a Democrat Harris County Commissioner El Franco Lee who said,”Why are you here? We have never had poll watchers here. Ya’ll need to get on out of here.”

Lee then demanded that the polling place judge give him information about the three poll watchers and the presiding judge complied–giving him their private information. The three poll watchers now fear for their safety and wonder what will be done with their personal information which included their phone numbers and home addresses.

Tommy Christopher, who, it should be noted is a White House correspondent and not a Texas native nor a Texas reporter, makes an outrageous linkage to the Philadelphia Black Panther case. In that case, Black Panther members were armed and preventing people from voting.

The alleged cases here in Houston are unsupported accusations with no documentation and no video or audio proof. Meanwhile, the poll watchers themselves report being yelled at and harassed, told to leave, and intimidated.

Catherine Engelbrecht expressed frustration about the situation–about being sued, about the constant barrage of negative national media and the misunderstanding around the purpose of True The Vote.

“We want everyone to have a free and fair election,” Englebrecht said. “That’s all we want. We are 100% innocent.”

Houston blogger Kevin Whited notes that it looks like the “Colorado Model” is being brought to Harris County, Texas. He goes on to explain:

Of course, Matt Angle features in The Blueprint, a fine piece of political journalism that describes how a handful of committed millionaire progressives managed to flip formerly reliably Republican Colorado to the Dems over a few election cycles, through strategic funding of down-ballot political races, creation of a loose network of “independent” news organizations and “ethics” groups to pound targeted opponents, and liberal use (no pun intended) of the legal system to tie up ostensibly conservative organizations. Angle all but promised to bring the Colorado Model to Texas, in the form of his Lone Star Project (and associated groups).

And if you begin to connect the dots locally — as Cory Crow also does — you can see elements of the Colorado Model at work, right here in Harris County. Now, There’s nothing illegal or unethical per se about the model. In many ways, The Blueprint is a great political novel that just happens to be true. However, given the state political media’s occasional interest in the influence of big money in politics (when it happens to be a donor like, say, Bob Perry), it would be nice to see that same interest extend to progressive big money and the machinations of nominally “independent” front groups.

Another local Houston blogger, Cory Crow does connect the dots:

It’s interesting to note that, on the same day the HCDP added KSP to their lawsuit the George Soros/Matt Angle backed Texans for Public Justice filed an ethics complaint against KSP based almost entirely on reporting found in another Colorado Model media outlet, The American Independent, which was then dutifully carried by another Colorado Model “news” outlet The Texas Tribune which conveniently forgot to disclose TPJ’s funding ties to Texas Democratic king-maker Matt Angle.*

So we have several (allegedly) Democratic partisan groups suing and filing ethics complaints against an (allegedly) Republican partisan group for (allegedly) performing the exact same actions they’re (allegedly) involved in.

Now, to connect the dots even further. Earlier today, I noted that The Texas Tribune just partnered with the New York Times who has just opened a Texas division. From Poynter Online there’s this:

In addition to Texas Tribune’s public policy reporting, the Times plans to publish some cultural and lifestyles coverage in the new regional pages. Evan Smith, who was a longtime editor of Texas Monthly before becoming editor of Texas Tribune, will commission and edit the additional content separately from his duties at the Tribune.

The Democrats seem to want to make Texas a battleground state–by any means necessary. The only sticking point has been a small grassroots organization simply wanting to make sure Harris County elections are free and fair.

No doubt, this is not the last we’ve heard on this story.

link: http://libertypundits.net/article/poll-watchers-claim-harassment-an...