The DOJ is going to be monitoring the Texas primaries next week in a couple of counties including Fort Bend http://txredistricting.org/post/23736139553/doj-to-monitor-texas-primary-elections

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO MONITOR ELECTIONS IN TEXAS

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor primary elections on May 29, 2012, in Fort Bend, Harris and Jefferson Counties in Texas, to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other federal voting rights statutes. The Voting Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the election process on the basis of race, color or membership in a minority language group. In addition, the act requires certain covered jurisdictions to provide language assistance during the election process.

Under the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department is authorized to ask the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to send federal observers to jurisdictions that are certified by the attorney general or by a federal court order. Federal observers will be assigned to monitor polling place activities in Fort Bend and Jefferson Counties based on the attorney general’s certification. In addition, Fort Bend is subject to a court order entered in 2009, which requires the jurisdiction to comply with the minority language and assistor of choice requirements of the Voting Rights Act, as well as the requirements of the Help America Vote Act. The observers will watch and record activities during voting hours at polling locations in these counties, and Civil Rights Division attorneys will coordinate the federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

In addition, Justice Department personnel will monitor polling place activities in Harris County. A Civil Rights Division attorney will coordinate federal activities and maintain contact with local election officials.

Each year, the Justice Department deploys hundreds of federal observers from OPM, as well as departmental staff, to monitor elections across the country. To file complaints about discriminatory voting practices, including acts of harassment or intimidation, voters may call the Voting Section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division at 1-800-253-3931.

I attended a press conference held by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Congressman Al Green on the Texas voter id law and on concerns about possible restrictions on Sunday voting. The Texas Sec. of State has refused to attempt to educate the public at the status of the Texas Voter ID law (SB14) and so many people think that can not vote with out the proper ID. Congresswoman Jackson Lee has asked the Texas Secretary of State to inform voters about the status of the law and there has been no efforts to do. State Senator Rodney Ellis asked the Secretary of State to issue some guidance and to attempt to educate voters back on May 11 and the Secretary of State also ignored Senator Ellis' request http://www.texastribune.org/texas-politics/voter-id/sos-asked-tell-public-voter-id-not-effect/

Is anyone surprised by the refusal of the Texas Secretary of State to take steps to educate voters as to the status of the law?

As for early voting on Sunday, the states of Florida, North Carolina and Ohio are attempting to restrict early voting on Sunday. So far, the efforts to restrict early voting in Sunday in Ohio are suspended by the voter imitative rules and the attempt to eliminate early voting in Sunday has been objected by the Department of Justice under the Voting Rights Act.

In 2010, Democrats in Fort Bend County in Texas did not pay attention to a congressional district race that we knew that the GOP was going to win. A LaRouche cult member named Kesha Rogers won the Democratic nomination in 2010 and after the she had the nomination we found out that she was running on the platform of impeaching President Obama and starting a colony on Mars. Please watch out for these pretend Democrats. In the general election, Kesha Rogers got only 29% of the vote which was 10% less than the other Democrats running that year received (it was a bad year for Democrats in Texas). In Texas straight party ticket voting is good for party building and we could not encourage our voters to vote a straight party ticket because that meant that they would be voting for a cult candidate who wanted to impeach President Obama. Kesha Rogers averaged 10% less than other Democrats running that year because we got people to split ticket vote which hurt our GOTV efforts.

Diane Sare who is running for the Democratic nomination in New Jersey CD5 is a LaRouche cult follower and is also running on the platform of impeaching President Obama and building a colony on Mars. I just spent two hours calling voters in Texas to alert these voters about Kesha Rogers and I would hate to see the Democrats in New Jersey face the same issues that we went through here in Texas CD22. I know that a Republican currently holds this seat but it will still be a pain if the Democratic candidate for this seat is a LaRouchie. Having a LaRouche cult member on the ticket will drain resources and hurt the GOTV efforts.

Please be careful and do not let another LaRouche get the chance to hurt the party and President Obama. I have watched a couple of Sare's videos and she is just as nutty as Kesha Rogers.

In Texas in 2010, Democrats in Fort Bend County in Texas did not pay attention to a congressional district race that we knew that the GOP was going to win. A LaRouche cult member named Kesha Rogers won the Democratic nomination in 2010 and after the she had the nomination we found out that she was running on the platform of impeaching President Obama and starting a colony on Mars. Please watch out for these pretend Democrats. In the general election, Kesha Rogers got only 29% of the vote which was 10% less than the other Democrats running that year received (it was a bad year for Democrats in Texas). In Texas straight party ticket voting is good for party building and we could not encourage our voters to vote a straight party ticket because that meant that they would be voting for a cult candidate who wanted to impeach President Obama. Kesha Rogers averaged 10% less than other Democrats running that year because we got people to split ticket vote.

Dave Christie who is running for the Democratic nomination in WA CD9 is a LaRouche cult follower and is also running on the platform of impeaching President Obama. I just spent two hours calling voters in Texas to alert these voters about Kesha Rogers and I would hate to see the Democrats in Washington State face the same issues that we went through here in Texas CD22. Congressman Adam Smith appears to be a good democrat and hopefully will have no trouble with the LaRouche candidate but I urge Washington DUers to be careful. LaRouchies are dangerous and can sneak up on you.

One of the key issues in both the redistricting case and the vote id cases pending before the DC Circuit is the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act which requires certain actions to be pre-cleared. The DC Circuit just upheld the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in a split decision http://txredistricting.org/post/23297804975/breaking-dc-circuit-upholds-the-constitutionality-of

In a 2-1 decision this morning in the Shelby County case, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the continued constitutionality of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Writing for the majority, Judge Tatel said:

In Northwest Austin, the Supreme Court signaled that the extraordinary federalism costs imposed by section 5 raise substantial constitutional concerns. As a lower federal court urged to strike this duly enacted law of Congress, we must proceed with great caution, bound as we are by Supreme Court precedent and confined as we must be to resolve only the precise legal question before us: Does the severe remedy of preclearance remain ‘congruent and proportional’? The legislative record is by no means unambiguous. But Congress drew reasonable conclusions from the extensive evidence it gathered and acted pursuant to the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, which entrust Congress with ensuring that the right to vote - surely among the most important guarantees of political liberty in the Constitution - is not abridged on account of race. In this context, we owe much deference to the considered judgment of the People’s elected representatives.

The constitutionality of Section 5 was bifurcated in the voter id lawsuit and would only be addressed if and when the DC court held that the Texas voter id law violated Section 5. The state of Texas in effect has the burden of proving that the Texas voter id law did not affect minority voting rights and Texas is going to have a hard time meeting that burden without having Section 5 declared unconstitutional

This is great news but means that the SCOTUS will be looking at Section 5 in the next session