Harris County Tax Office Vindicated
Lawsuit dropped; Vasquez looks to the future
HOUSTON – October 28, 2009 – On Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009, the Harris County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a resolution agreement reached by the Harris County Tax Office and the Texas Democratic Party. The agreement fully disposes of the lawsuit brought in 2008 by the TDP and the Harris County Democratic Party against the prior Tax Assessor-Collector, Paul Bettencourt.
“It’s all about good government, and this agreement should finally put the baseless allegations behind us,” said current Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar, Leo Vasquez. “This was the worst example of a nuisance lawsuit and ill-informed lawyers run amok. As I have always held, this lawsuit proved to be completely without merit.”
The resolution agreement was enthusiastically supported by the Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan, a Democrat. No wrongdoing by the Harris County Tax Office was identified by any party involved, and no significant changes to the operations of the Tax Office will be required. The negotiations to dispose of the matter were led by a former Harris County Democratic Party Chairman, John Odam, who now serves as a special counsel to the Harris County Attorney’s Office.
“The voter registration processes of Harris County have always operated in compliance with the election laws, and we will continue to do so,” Vasquez stressed. “The Democratic Party has now acknowledged and finally recognizes that all required information must be provided by applicants in order for them to be added to the voter roll.”
Vasquez went on to explain, “The Democratic Party also pushed to ensure that felons are not erroneously prevented from registering to vote, in the event they have already served their full sentences. This was a very important point for Gerry Birnberg, Chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party, and Boyd Richie, the Texas Democratic Party Chairman.”
The resolution agreement also clarifies the policy for dealing with persons who illegally use a business address, rather than their residence address. Mr. Birnberg and Mr. Richie insisted these applicants be registered even at a business address, but did concede that per the Texas Election Code, the Voter Registrar is allowed to challenge these incorrect applications.
The Democrats have thrown about misleading statistics claiming 70,000 Harris County voter registration applications were incorrectly rejected in the 2007-2008 election cycle.
The actual incomplete and rejected applications figure was 67,554. The facts show that 3,518 were specifically rejected by law as being ineligible. This rejection rate was within one-quarter of one percent (0.25%) of the rejection rate Democrats cited in Dallas County.
Of the balance of the 64,036 incomplete registration applications submitted, 52,734 had errors such as unsigned applications, failing to provide a verifiable identification number or date of birth, not confirming their U.S. citizenship, improper addresses, or multiple errors on the application.
The heavy activity of ACORN in Harris County also contributed to the poor quality of voter registration applications submitted to the voter registration office. Over 25% of the volunteer deputies self-identified as being affiliated with ACORN were convicted felons, not eligible to vote themselves.
The Harris County voter registration staff also took the lead in the 2009 legislative session in support of Democratic State Rep. Alma Allen’s HB 1448 to amend the format of the standard voter registration application card to simplify the card and eliminate confusion. That confusion caused the balance of the 11,302 Harris County applications to receive a notice of incomplete letter per directives of the Texas Secretary of State’s office.
Vasquez summarized, “The citizens of Harris County can be proud of their Tax Office and its voter registration department. We have dedicated employees on all levels, working diligently to support the mission of the Office with efficiency and the highest ethical standards. I ask the Democrats to put aside their partisanship and to work with my office to achieve my goal of ensuring that every eligible citizen in Harris County gets registered to vote.”
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The tables below detail the number of applications during the 2007-08 election cycle that were rejected by law and the number that were incomplete.
|
Reject Notices
|
| Notice Description |
2007 Total |
2008 Total |
Total |
| Rejected under voting age |
339 |
971 |
1,310 |
| Rejected statement of non-citizen |
199 |
220 |
419 |
| Rejected current felon |
173 |
557 |
730 |
| Rejected mental incompetence |
28 |
116 |
144 |
Rejected cannot use Statement of
Residence form as application |
88 |
827 |
915 |
| TOTAL | | |
3,518 |
|
Notice Of Incomplete Application
|
| Notice Description |
2007 Total |
2008 Total |
Total |
Residential Address given is
Unknown |
273 |
163 |
436 |
Needs Physical Address – U.S.
Postal Box number or blank given
for residential address |
719 |
3,894 |
4,613 |
Residential Address is a
Commercial Address or
Commercial Postal Business |
1,571 |
4,598 |
6,169 |
No Statement Confirming U.S.
Citizenship |
28 |
116 |
144 |
| Failed SSN match |
346 |
5,174 |
5,520 |
| Failed TDL match |
2,283 |
13,316 |
15,599 |
Did not check no TDL box
(SOS 12/12/2005 Memo) |
2,252 |
9,050 |
11,302 |
| No TDL or SSN provided |
2,651 |
6,395 |
9,046 |
| No signature |
851 |
1,725 |
2,576 |
| No date of birth |
261 |
1,702 |
1,963 |
| Signature does not match the name |
26 |
32 |
58 |
| Multiple Errors |
1,031 |
1,459 |
2,490 |
| TOTAL | | |
64,036 |
|
Status of Notices of Incomplete
|
| Total Incomplete Notices 2007 – 2008 |
64,036 |
| Minus those that became registered |
- 29,386 |
Minus duplicates that matched two categories of
name, date of birth, TDL or SSN. |
- 22,518 |
Total- Those remaining unverifiable as Registered
Applicants from the total Incomplete Notices
(although possibly registered) |
12,132 |
Harris County Tax Office, October 2009