Battleground Texas responds to O'Keefe's latest video [View all]

[Gothmog]

O'Keefe is out with a video claiming that Battleground Texas is breaking Texas law by collecting telephone numbers from voters when they register voters. I am a deputy voter registrar in Texas and have worked at a couple of Battleground events. The Battleground people are well organized and are in compliance with Texas law. The Texas AG referred this case to the San Antonio DA and David Dewhurst has referred this issue to the AG.

Battleground has responded to the claims of O'Keefe. Battleground Texas' lawyers agree with my position that Texas law was not broken. Here is the letter from the lawyers for Battleground on this issue https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxeOfQQnUr_gcGVSQURDelZSXzg/edit?pli=1 The same firm that represents President Obama is representing Battleground. This response is well done. Here is a link to one of the opinions from Greg Abbott that is cited in this letter https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/openrecords/50abbott/orl/2010/htm/or201008083.htm

You also argue the voters' telephone numbers and dates of birth are excepted from disclosure, and highlight language in sections 13.004(a) and 13.004(d) of the Election Code. However, for information to be confidential under section 552.101, the provision of law must explicitly require confidentiality. A confidentiality requirement will not be inferred from a provision's structure. See Open Records Decision Nos. 658 at 4 (1998) (stating that statutory confidentiality provision must be express and confidentiality requirement will not be implied from statutory structure), 478 at 2 (1987) (stating that, as general rule, statutory confidentiality requires express language making information confidential), 465 at 4-5 (1987). Section 13.004(a) prohibits the county from transcribing, copying, or recording a voter's telephone number. See Elec. Code § 13.004(a). Section 13.004(d) prohibits the posting of certain specified information on a website. See id. § 13.004(d). Because neither section 13.004(a) or section 13.004(d) explicitly provides that information is confidential, we find that the county may not withhold the telephone numbers and birth dates of voters from the requestor under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 13.004 of the Election Code.

Again, Attorney General Abbott has issued clear opinions on this issue and it is clear that Battleground is not violating any law and that O'Keefe is lying. I am amused that Greg Abbott did not know he had opined on this issue already.

I also love the fact that fool Christian Adams was too stupid to read Texas law on this issue http://pjmedia.com/jchristianadams/2014/02/19/new-okeefe-video-battleground-texas-violates-election-law-to-help-wendy-davis/ Christian Adams is the idiot who was illegally hired by the DOJ by the bushies and had to leave the DOJ when real attorneys took over. I love it when this fool is shown to be ignorant of the law