Hartnett Report Says Vo Won Election

[WestHoustonDem]

According to the Quorum report http://www.quorumreport.com/


February 7, 2005 7:45 AM
HARTNETT REPORT SAYS VO WON ELECTION
Report to be available later this morning

Acting as a Special Master in the HD19 election challenge, State Rep. Will Hartnett's report to be issued this morning will conclude that Hubert Vo won his election by at least sixteen votes. Any remaining disputed votes are insufficient to overturn the election.

In a statement this morning, Vo said,"I appreciate the careful and thorough job my colleague Mr. Hartnett has done under intense pressure and in difficult circumstances. He refused to be distracted by sidebar issues and kept his focus on making sure the will of the voters is upheld.

"I am confident that my colleagues on the special committee and in the full House will live up to the standard Mr. Hartnett has set in honoring both the spirit and the essence of our democratic process."

ã Copyright February 7, 2005 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved

[NoPasaran]

1. Ya Hooooo!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[crispini]

2. Yippee!!!!!

[Hand]

3. Good work, Hartnett...

...and stay off of small planes for a while, okay?

:toast:

[Richardo]

4. Alright!

and a laurel, and hearty handshake, to Will Hartnett for doing the right thing - not easy for a Republican in Texas.

[merci_me]

9. Part of me has to wonder

if, after spending years with the idiot Heflin, even the repukes realized they'd rather have Vo. Vo can be exceedingly charming while being fair and compassionate and will work circles around anyone, without looking for praise or payoff for himself.

Mary

[PDittie]

5. Good. Next?

[GOPisEvil]

6. Austin-American Statesman reporting it too.

http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/gen/ap/TX_XGR_Election_Challenge.html

16-vote margin. Now on to the full committee...

[sonias]

7. Vo wins again!!

This is at least the 4th time he's been declared the winner of this race. I certainly hope the Heifer and Taylor lay off.

Congratulations to Hubert Vo once again, this time for sure!

Sonia

[sonias]

8. Off the Kuff blog link

http://offthekuff.com/mt/

Vo's statement
"I appreciate the careful and thorough job my colleague Mr. Hartnett has done under intense pressure and in difficult circumstances. He refused to be distracted by sidebar issues and kept his focus on making sure the will of the voters is upheld.

I am confident that my colleagues on the special committee and in the full House will live up to the standard Mr. Hartnett has set in honoring both the spirit and the essence of our democratic process."

---------------
Sonia

[WestHoustonDem]

10. The Statesman is reporting Heflin has withdrawn the challlenge!

LEGISLATURE UPDATE
Friday, January 21, 2005

Heflin withdraws challenge
Republican Talmadge Heflin withdrew his election challenge against Rep. Hubert Vo for the District 149 seat late Monday, after a report released earlier in the day recommended that the case be dismissed.

Updates coming soon at statesman.com/legislature

:party: :toast: :bounce: :thumbsup: :grouphug:

[crispini]

11. A-FUCKING-MEN, HALLELUJIA!

Another good Democrat gets in, another jerky Republican gets gone.



Now let's keep doing that.

[Texicrat]

12. Excellent!

Wonderful news!

Kudos to Rep. Hartnett!

[gmoses]

13. but if you have a critical bone left to pick here

I'm mulling over a few issues that may be worth further consideration:

http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/

[last_texas_dem]

14. Great

Even if it's just one seat, it's great to see some good news for Democrats in the TX legislature.

[muse]

15. Great news!!

This shouldn't have drug on as long as it did. Heflin was grasping at straws and wasting time and money with forcing Voh and the Legislature to deal with a challenge.

[gmoses]

16. do we want to ignore the issues that remain?

(from a fresh draft this morning)

While Hartnett had no qualms forwarding some of findings for further investigation, he confines other issues to footnotes, to be held in fine print so long as the Vo victory stands. But why are some issues worthy of further investigation right away, while other issues are either ignored or buried in dependent clauses? The answer seems to depend on whether the possible wrongdoing concerns Democratic voters or Republican attorneys.

http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/

[crispini]

17. Well, no, but what would you suggest?

Good article, btw.

It sounds like you're very interested in election fairness. Ping me, I'm doing some work with Citizens for Equality and I am proposing a lobby day around election issues. (dunno if it'll fly though).

[gmoses]

18. first thing, do the arguments make sense?

second thing, who would take them up? (3rd thing: I can't ping here.)

[crispini]

19. Oh, now you're asking me to THINK

instead of being just flip and smartass. (Heavy sigh). :) Ok, let's see.

It seems to me that this is your summary:

Aside from the best interests of high-powered players in this drama, there are some citizens whose rights need tending, and they are the voters themselves. The process of this election investigation was offensive to voters and interfered with their rights in several ways: subjecting them to unauthorized taped conversations that were placed into public record, removing some voters from official rolls as a direct result of partisan influence, intruding on a voter's right to cast a secret ballot, and producing apparently forged evidence in an attempt to overturn an election.

I think you support all of your points here in the essay above, except intruding on the voter's right to cast a secret ballot. I don't see where you backed up that point?

And, as far as who would take them up, I don't know what jurisdiction this would all fall under. Houston or Austin? If you're really interested in pursuing this, Ronnie Earle's office might be a good place to start -- they could at least point you in the right direction, one would think. I'd think it would be Houston, though -- so maybe johncoby or another Houstonian (Houstonite?) on this board could point you in the right direction. What you need, I think, is a Houston election lawyer.

3rd thing -- sorry, I was being flip. Ping = Private Message, and I think you should have enough posts to do so by now? I'll PM you and see if it works.

[gmoses]

20. thanks

I'll keep you posted if I do call Mr. Earle

[gmoses]

22. open records request filed

for original docs in Heflin v. Vo contest. I should have some results to report next week. Stay tuned.

http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/

[crispini]

23. Ooooo. Fun! thanks!

This forum is so cool. So many real activists here! :)

[sonias]

24. Thanks gmoses, you're doing good work out there

Have you tried getting an op-ed piece published in the Texas Observer or the Austin Chronicle. I think either of those would be interested in this important work you're doing. You could also submit to AAS but we know that rag, stopped caring about real journalism a long time ago.

We care too of course.

Sonia

[gmoses]

25. Why Election Issues Remain

And Why We're Going to Look at the Original Documents in the Vo Election Challenge

By Greg Moses
Texas Civil Rights Review

On the surface of things, voters in Houston have finally been allowed to assert their preference in the November election of Vietnamese immigrant Hubert Vo to the state house. The long-time Republican incumbent last week finally withdrew his legislative challenge following publication of a Republican-led investigation that recommended in Vo's favor.

Not far beneath the surface of things however, larger questions linger, and they should not be swept under the rug. There are questions of precedent: do we want to normalize this kind of legislative contest in close elections? There are questions of racist media bias: why is the major daily now reporting that the case had obvious merit from the start? And there are questions of fairness: why should the alleged wrongdoings of voters be more worthy of attack than the alleged wrongdoings of Republican lawyers who go after them?

http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=162

[sonias]

26. Another great story Greg

I'm sending this one around. Lots of important issues in there.

Sonia

[gmoses]

27. bad faith on the record

From the Monday afternoon review, I have confirmed the observations of Master of Inquiry Will Hartnett (R-Dallas) that at least one deposition was submitted with two different colors of ink. However, at this point I'm not sure about the further claim that two kinds of handwriting are evident.

Also, the so-called mystery of the "deported" Nigerian-American voters was not a mystery to anyone with access to the original evidence. This includes the Republican team of lawyers who gathered the evidence in the first place. Written very plainly on the envelope of one of the provisional ballots cast by one of the voters was the explanation that the changed voter registration was probably due to the work of another candidate in another district. This plain indication of the probable cause of error did not deter Republican attorneys from attempting to suppress the ballot anyway.

So far, evidence for bad faith is not in the style of handwriting on depositions, but in the explanations for discrepancies in voter registrations that were plainly written and plainly ignored by the Republican effort to criminalize Democrat voters.

http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/

[DesEtoiles]

21. good news