David Whitley Attempts Voter Suppression

We in Guadalupe County should be thankful for Elections Administrator Lisa Adam and her staff who are handling the Secretary of State’s attempt to purge voters with dedication and professionalism. When Secretary of State David Whitley’s office decided to send lists of 95,000 registered voters that it hadn’t confirmed were citizens it was touted on social media as a “voter fraud alert”.

In Cameron County where the list contained 366 names not a single one was found to be a non-citizen. Travis and Harris Counties are still working their lists which number in the thousands but so far they’ve cleared more than half of the people on their lists. As of this morning the state has revised the list, reducing it by half.

This whole effort seems to be aimed at spreading anxiety in two ways; first to rev up the Republican base with claims of vast numbers of ineligible voters and second to suppress the votes of Latino voters to whom the majority of names on the state’s list belong.

Gov. Greg Abbott just nominated David Whitley to the Secretary of State post and that nomination is currently before a committee in the Texas Senate. Whitley is facing tough questions about his actions and his understanding of the concept of voter suppression.

Several groups that work on voter registration and empowerment have notified the Secretary Whitley that his office is in violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) which sets out requirements with for the administration of voter registration and protects registered voters against wrongful removal from voter rolls in Section 8. The NVRA protects duly registered voters from improper removal by requiring states to “ensure that any eligible applicant is registered to vote” and mandating that, once the voter is on the rolls, the state “shall not remove” that voter except in a few limited circumstances: at the request of the registrant; by reason of criminal conviction or mental incapacity as provided by state law; or pursuant to a general program of voters list maintenance that makes a reasonable effort to remove voters who become ineligible due to death or a change in residence.

When anyone, including these naturalized citizens on the state's list submits a voter registration application they are require to sign under penalty of perjury affirming their U.S. citizenship. The guidelines sent with the advisory suggests removal from the voter rolls for anyone who can’t be readily matched to citizenship records unless they come forward and provide documentary proof of their citizenship. This violates the obligation on Texas under the NVRA to ensure that eligible applicants who submit valid registration forms are registered to vote and are removed only for one of the statutorily-specified reasons.

Failure to provide citizenship documentation is not one of the permissible grounds for removal of a duly registered voter. There’s no doubt that the state is permitted to remove non-citizens who have somehow become registered to vote, but the NVRA does not permit an overbroad program such as the one outlined in the Advisory that will inevitably sweep in significant numbers of eligible citizens due to the inadequacies of the Department of Public Safety’s database.

Numerous good government groups like the Common Cause Texas, of which I am chair, MOVE Texas Civic Fund, JOLT Initiative, the League of Women Voters of Texas, the ACLU of Texas, the Texas Civil Rights Project, and the NAACP of Texas have raised their voice regarding this attempted purge. Some are suing the Secretary of State, others are calling for his nomination to be denied.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 15, 2019

Honoring a Defender of Democracy

A week ago I had the privilege of attending the League of Women Voters of Texas "Defending Democracy Dinner" honoring Randall Buck Wood for his career defending democracy in Texas. Mr. Wood served as Director of the Elections Division of the Texas Office of the Secretary of State, then he became the Executive Director of Common Cause Texas, a public interest advocacy organization, and now in addition to his private law practice serves as the General Counsel to the Equity Center, an association of over 500 below-average-wealth school districts committed to improving public school funding in Texas.

Common Cause, a citizens’ group focused on government transparency and ethics, hired Wood in September 1972 as Executive Director. Early the previous year, at the beginning of the bi-annual legislative session the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges alleging a far-reaching stock manipulation scheme organized by top business and political leaders which would eventually become known as the Sharpstown scandal. The speaker of the House, one of his top aides and another house member were convicted. The ensuing investigation uncovered other shenanigans involving lobbyists handing out checks on the House floor in exchange for legislative action as well as legislators enriching themselves on the taxpayers dime sometimes through outright theft of public property.

With Texas in the throes of the Sharpstown scandal and having elected a large number of new legislators claiming a reform agenda Wood struck while the iron was hot and pushed his programs through against the opposition of practically every other lobbyist and many of the legislators themselves. Wood was provided several model bills by the national organization which he then modified to meet the needs of Texas and wrote some bills of his own, they all focused on ethics of legislators and state officials; lobby registration and reporting of expenditures; campaign finance reporting; expansion of the open meetings law; thus enlarging the public’s access to government information.

Wood’s work for Common Cause led to an improved open meetings law; tightened controls over campaign contributions and expenditures; easier public access to government records; and, most importantly for the lobby, tightened control over lobbyists and their spending.

After the state lost the landmark school finance case, Edgewood ISD v. Kirby, which alleged discrimination against students in poor school districts the Governor contacted Buck Wood and instructed him to write a public school finance bill that was constitutional in under a week. The school district and several parents had charged that the state's methods of funding public schools violated at least four principles of the state constitution, which obligated the state legislature to provide an efficient and free public school system. His team worked up a bill and saw it through the legislative process successfully.

Since then Mr. Wood, as the General Counsel to the Equity Center, has been involved in most of the numerous school finance cases over the last 30 or so years. All the cases have charged that the state continues to fail in its constitutional duty to provide an efficient and free public school system and the courts have agreed over and over.

Many area districts including San Antonio ISD which has announced staff reductions and Schertz/Cibolo/Universal City ISD which will ask to raise property taxes later this year are or soon will be in difficult straits under the current financing formula. It is unconscionable that after more than 30 years the state legislature still doesn’t have the guts to do what needs doing and develop an equitable tax and funding system. Mr. Wood says he’ll keep working to improve public education through the courts if he has to.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - May 4, 2018

Don't miss the opportunity to vote in November because you don't have the proper documents

Recent changes in Texas voting laws may surprise many voters in November when we vote on city council, school boards, bonds and constitutional amendments. Beginning with this election all in person voters must show an approved photo ID which are limited to:

Texas drivers license

Texas concealed handgun license

Texas Election Identification Certificate

Texas personal identification card, United States military identification card containing the person’s photograph

U.S. citizenship certificate containing the person’s photograph

U.S. passport

With the exception of the U.S. citizenship certificate, the identification must be current or have expired no more than 60 days before being presented at the polling place.

Other changes include a requirement that the name on the photo ID and voter registration match so if you’re a woman who has recently married or divorced and changed your name be sure documents match.

Since the legislature failed to fund voter education measures to insure that all voters know the new rules non-partisan organizations have pooled resources and created a web site www.gotidtexas.org to help voters confirm that they have the requisite documents to vote. Common Cause Texas urges everyone to check their documents and tell friends and family about the site so that no voter is disenfranchised in November because they didn’t know what they needed.

JC Dufresne

Common Cause Texas, Vice Chair