Yesterday, Vasquez issued a press release exposing his rank dishonesty and destroying any confidence the public could have in his ability or willingness to conduct fair elections in Harris County. Vasquez was not forced to settle the lawsuit, he chose to do so. Yet less than a week after giving his pledge to honor the settlement, he reneged and issued a press release saying the legal complaint “was the worst example of a nuisance lawsuit and ill-informed lawyers run amok. As I have always held, this lawsuit proved to be completely without merit.” and “no significant changes to the operations of the Tax Office will be required.” ( Source: Vasquez Release, 10/18/2009 )
These comments should inform all Harris County voters that their trust has been betrayed. Clearly, Leo Vasquez has no intention to follow the spirit or letter of the agreement that he personally signed. Vasquez’s press release followed attacks and misrepresentations from his Republican County Party Chair, Jared Woodfill, and his predecessor, Paul Bettencourt. Both attacked the settlement and denied the very acts Vasquez has previously admitted. During his short tenure as Tax Assessor Collector, Leo Vasquez has failed to distance himself from the harsh ideological partisans in his party like Jared Woodfill, and he has refused to fire Bettencourt staff at the Tax Assessor office, particularly the Republican “inside man” Ed Johnson.
Virtually all election laws are only as good as the people who administer them. Election workers speak to and advise individual voters. They personally handle voter registration applications. They handle key voting documents like provisional ballot affidavits. Based on the comments of Vasquez and his handlers, Leo Vasquez has no plans to conduct elections fairly in Harris County.
Houston Chronicle Editorial Rebuts Vasquez/GOP Rhetoric
A Houston Chronicle editorial today called the settlement “a welcome development and the Texas Democratic Party lawsuit “anything but frivolous.” The Chronicle also condemned the improper activities uncovered and reported by the Lone Star Project. Summing up their view, the Chronicle wrote, “It’s unfortunate that it took a lawsuit to secure a common-sense ban on voter registration officials moonlighting as consultants to political campaigns.”
The Houston Chronicle’s Editorial directly refutes the inaccurate and misleading comments by Vasquez, Woodfill and Bettencourt below
What Leo Vasquez said:
“This was the worst example of a nuisance lawsuit and ill-informed lawyers run amok. As I have always held, this lawsuit proved to be completely without merit.”The Houston Chronicle Wrote:
“But the specified changes in the tax-office procedures for handling registration applications make it clear that the original complaints were anything but frivolous.”
—Houston Chronicle Editorial, October 29, 2009What Harris GOP Chair Jared Woodfill said:
“The assertions by The Lone Star Project are based on a settlement by the Tax Office of a lawsuit brought by the Texas Democratic Party alleging that residents were prevented from registering to vote and ultimately denied the right to vote. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth; …The settlement by Leo Vasquez is not an admission of wrongdoing by the Tax Office, but rather an admission by the Democrats that their lawsuit lacked significant merit and an acknowledgement that their frivolous lawsuit would have ultimately been doomed in the legal process. “
—Jared Woodfill, Harris County Republican Press Release 10/27/2009The Houston Chronicle Wrote:
“It’s unfortunate that it took a lawsuit to secure a common-sense ban on voter registration officials moonlighting as consultants to political campaigns.”
—Houston Chronicle Editorial, October 29, 2009What former Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt said:
“My office didn’t deny 78,000 voter registrations in 2008. The actual number of rejected voter registration applications from Jan. 1st 2007 to Dec. 31st 2008 was only 3518. During that period of time the Tax Office also mailed 64,036 Notices of incomplete as required under the federal Help America Vote Act.”
—Paul Bettencourt post on DogCanyon.org, 10/28/2009The Houston Chronicle Wrote:
“The rejection of more than 60,000 voter applications last year for technical reasons by the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector’s office prompted a lawsuit by the Texas Democratic Party. The plaintiffs contended that the scope of the rejections here vastly exceeded any other Texas county and were politically motivated. They claimed nearly a quarter of those applying to register prior to the 2008 elections were disallowed without following state law provisions for timely notification.
—Houston Chronicle Editorial, October 29, 2009
