Congressmen call on feds to investigate Harris County's primary election day disaster. Leif Reigstad, Village Voice Houston
The letter, penned by U.S. Reps. Gene Green and Al Green, asked that U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch look into "the distribution of voting machines and polling stations" for the Harris County primary."On March 1, we witnessed long lines in predominately Hispanic and African-American precincts in Harris County due to the lack of voting machines and polling locations," the congressmen wrote in the letter. "The failure to distribute sufficient voting machines in predominately Hispanic and African-American precincts in Harris County, in comparison to the resources made available in more affluent, predominately Anglo precincts in the county, had a discriminatory impact on our constituents' ability to participate in the political process."
Hopefully the first person that Ms. Lynch looks at is Harris County Democratic Party Chair Lane Lewis. Because it's the local parties that determine which precincts will be combined and which polling places can be open. The County Clerk's office then disperses voting machines to the selected polling locations based on historical patterns.
In other words, the primary reasons that there were long lines and "confusion" is because the Harris County Democratic Party did both a poor job allocating resources, and an even worse job of notifying Democrats where to vote.
There was nothing in the run-up to these elections to suggest that minority turn-out on the Democratic side was going to be high. To the contrary, Democratic turnout has severely lagged behind GOP turnout throughout the primary process. That so many people came out to vote also makes this statement, by President Obama, hilarious on it's face....
The congressmen's letter, dated March 15, came after President Barack Obama's weekend SXSW critique of Texas's voter registration law for limiting public participation in politics.
Clearly whatever "limitations" that are being experienced haven't leaked down to the actual voters, because they seem to be turning out just fine.
Of course, all of this only makes sense when you realize that "voter rights" actions aren't really about more voters at all. They're about scoring political points and targeting an elected official that local Democrats feel is vulnerable in their desperate attempts to gain more county offices. Stan Stanart has had his problems. And when he is up for reelection I'll be shocked if he doesn't draw a strong primary challenger that beats him and then goes on to beat whichever activist the Democrats put forward.
However, if you're looking for a landing spot for former Sheriff, failed Mayoral candidate and failed Congressional candidate Adrian Garcia, the new perennial candidate for local Democrats could find himself parked here.
Controlling the mechanisms of voter registration is the first step in building a political machine, and it appears that there is a not too small faction of local Democrats who think the Chicago Way should become a blueprint for extending and expanding the Houston Way. They are going to use a partisan Justice Department in an effort to aid that goal. It also appears that what remains of Houston media is going to do their part as well.
