Emails show Texas governor requested the voter purge that used flawed data

[deminks]

Source: San Antonio Express News

Electronic communications made public Tuesday show Gov. Greg Abbott’s office was a driving force in the state’s program to purge nearly 100,000 suspected non-U.S. citizens from Texas’ voter rolls.

The program was scrapped in April after the state settled lawsuits challenging it, and after Secretary of State officials publicly admitted they included flawed data showing tens of thousands of naturalized citizens were on the purge list.

The emails were made public Tuesday by the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center, which represented plaintiffs who sued the state.

In an August 2018 email from John Crawford, a top official of the driver’s license division at the Texas Department of Public Safety, to an employee, Crawford said DPS had run data of licensed drivers to compare to state voter rolls before, and “we have an urgent request from the governor’s office to do it again.”

At a three-day hearing in federal court in San Antonio, none of the state’s witnesses ever mentioned that Abbott had pushed for the program when questioning turned to the origins of the program, which some officials called “routine.”

But the emails show Abbott applied pressure to officials at DPS to provide data that the Secretary of State could use for voter list maintenance.

Read more: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/local/article/Emails-show-Texas-governor-requested-the-voter-13936493.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral

[diva77]

1. VERY Important!! It's not just Russia or the other 5 countries interfering with elections. And

Last edited Tue Jun 4, 2019, 09:34 PM - Edit history (1)

these tactics originating in the US have been put to use in elections since long before 2016.

[Gothmog]

2. The Texas GOP is the party of voter suppression

Beto's run has scared Greg Abbott and the GOP and so they want to suppress the vote.

Link to tweet

The Texas Democrats managed to kill a bad voter suppression bill this last session that would made it hard to drive voters to the polls

[Lonestarblue]

3. Abbott is as sleazy as they come.

When the 2018 legislature failed to pass their ridiculous bathroom bill, Abbott called a useless extra session to give legislators another chance. His whole administration works to deny minority rights and voting rights. They’ve passed numerous laws to curb the progressive policies (like sanctuary cities) of blue cities like Austin and Houston.

[groundloop]

4. "voter list maintenance" (i.e. stay in power at any cost and to hell with the constitution)

[Doitnow]

5. Another slimy GOPer. Must be all that's left of that party. What does McTurtle have on all of them?

[Gumboot]

6. And there was this minor issue, too...

Link to tweet

Not reported by any of the US corporate media, oddly enough...

[atreides1]

7. I blame that tree

If the tree had fallen at the right time, Abbot wouldn't be in a wheelchair...he'd be in a coffin!!!

[pat_k]

8. Disenfranchisement is the biggest threat we face -- and we are utterly failing to defend against it.

Republicans mounted a multi-decade, well-funded, coordinated, systematic, and successful campaign to take over Secty of State offices, legislatures, and governors offices for the express purpose of gerrymandering and disenfranchising more, and more, and more Americans from "certain" demographics.

And all the while, "our side" has failed to fight back. We should have been out there matching their efforts with an even larger, well-coordinated, well-funded counter offensive to expand the franchise and ensure fairness in redistricting. Tragically, the efforts on our side -- even now -- don't compare to the power of the Republican Sectys of State organizations, and related efforts. When will our so-called "leaders" get their act together? We can only do so much from down here in the trenches.

[JI7]

9. so we likely lost a Senate seat to another case of voter suppression