Extraordinary. Texas Republican legislators are now, officially, the champions of vote fraud.
After Democratic state Senator Wendy Davis’ nearly 13 hour standing filibuster of SB5, a draconian abortion restriction bill supported by the state’s Republican Gov. Rick Perry, Republicans decided to throw the rule of law out the window, and hold a roll call vote on the bill after midnight, when the special session was officially over, according to state law.
Nonetheless, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst fraudulently announced that the bill, which had supposedly passed at 12:01am, had actually passed at 11:59pm the night before, when the state Senate would still have been legally in session. Making matters even worse, the Republicans then went back and changed the official TX Senate web page to reflect their blatant fraud.
Here’s a screenshot from the TX Senate webpage BEFORE the fraud…
…And here’s a screenshot AFTER the Republicans’ attempt to defraud the people of Texas…
Amazing. More here.
According to some quick research by James Carter IV, however, it looks as though TX legislators may be playing with a felony according to the state penal code in their apparent attempt to “knowingly make a false entry in, or false alteration of, a governmental record”.
It’s hardly the first time there’s been massive vote fraud inside the Texas Statehouse, even as the Republicans there have been attempting, for years, to enact draconian polling place Photo ID restrictions for everyone else, under the fraudulent guise of combating “voter fraud”. Take a look at the video below, which we originally ran in 2007, showing blatant voter fraud by members of the TX legislature…
Unfortunately, despite the fraud seen in the video above, and the fraud over the abortion bill earlier tonight, with the U.S. Supreme Court having gutted the Voting Rights Act earlier today, it looks as though Texas will now be able to get away with restricting everyone else’s access to legally vote. The state Attorney General announced just after today’s ruling that he would now be implementing the state’s polling place Photo ID law “immediately”, despite the fact that it was rejected last year by both the Dept. of Justice and by a federal court after being found in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The law was rejected after the state’s own data revealed that registered Hispanic voters were as much as 120% more likely to be lacking state issued Photo ID as non-Hispanic voters.
But, apparently, it’s only voters — specifically, minority voters — who must be prevented from committing “voter fraud” (though there is no evidence they are committing any at the polling place), even as Republican legislators are welcome to defraud the system to their heart’s content in the Lone Star state.
UPDATE 12:28am PT: Late word now on the Twitters, mostly from Democratic sources, is that Dewhurst may now be revising his revision to put the vote back at 12:03am, after so much public attention to the attempted fraud. If so, that would mean the radical anti-abortion bill in Texas would be officially dead for this session, and Wendy Davis’ extraordinary one-woman filibuster would have been a success.
Ironically, considering the content of the bill, the only person in the TX Senate with a pair of balls is a woman.
Republifrauds, this is what a real filibuster looks like. Not the ‘we have 40 No Votes, so we’ll just threaten to filibuster.’ A real filibuster. Like so many other things, if the Democrats would actually force the Repigs to actually stand and talk for, oh, an hour or two at a time, let alone 13… ah, well, other than this brave lady, most Democrats are just as weak and spineless. They need to get to their tee times too!
Comment deleted – commercial spam!
Well, hey, I’ve got an idea. Why don’t we change the rules of voting along the lines of those used by the TX legislators, and then appoint me to cast a vote for every one else in the U.S.
It sure would reduce the cost of our elections and eliminate uncertainty of who won. 🙂
FTA:
The Supreme Court’s Section 5 ruling does not prevent the ACLU from initiating a lawsuit which raises both section 2 of the VRA and constitutional issues. The evidence that could be presented in TX is stronger than that which the ACLU offered in the Applewhite case in PA.
No wonder the morons in texas licked george w bush’s balls year after year.
and georgie porgie liked it — made him cry
Amazing how TX and NC and OH are suddenly trying to outdo eachother with ambushes on political due process. Coordination is in the air and it smells like astroturf. The anti-abortion playt sets the stage for GOP governors to announce White House runs and raise money.
It seems the plan is the sme – ignore the will of the people, gerrymander districts, and start shaving votes. NC had recently been successful in stripping voting rights from students in the state and just this week introduced bills to end early voting, end Sunday voting and put in voter ID cards.
The boomerang is the large protest crowds convening on almost no notice. Another x-factor was the rise of Wendy Davis.
Folks need to meet new female candidates like Mary Burke who is exploring a run against Scott Walker in WI. Burke’s family owns Trek Bicycles and would be able to mount credible attacks on not only this coordinated war on women, but the distraction from real job-creation.