Based on historical Republican Party activity to suppress voting by Democrats, particularly in “minority” voter categories in Harris County and Texas, a comprehensive program for the lead up to and conduct of the 2008 election, both primary and general, is in order.

Chair Birnberg has put  together a committee to address various needs to counter suppression activity; he is asking voting rights lawyer Chris Feldman(of keeping DeLay on the ballot case fame) to head such a committee and/but is very eager for help with various facets of such a program, not limited to legal action.

Broadly, the following activity has been included in such a program, planned and executed by several task groups comprising the total committee of approximately 20 volunteer Democrats. We see these initiatives as applicable to counties in particular with voter registration, voter roll and election administration managed by Republican county administrations, but recommend that they be looked into for Democratic county administrations as well.

• Voter Registration- oversight and investigation into whether registrations, particularly those from DPS offices but also minority community registration drives are timely put into the system to qualify voters within the deadline dates of registration cutoff.  We have evidence from prior early voting ballot boards of complaints from voters who registered through DPS and whose registrations never showed up on the voter rolls.

  We will be putting pressure on the Tax Assessor-Collector (Republican Paul Bettencourt) of Harris County via direct confrontation and media communications to resolve this problem locally, including urging voters to double check their registrations before election time and not take for granted it was processed properly.   We are urging our party to communicate to voters via the media to double check their registrations after the early fall registration deadline.

  We are also looking into the process of “poll book” reconciliation After elections via a volunteer corps in Harris County to see if Disparities exist between precinct-level voters and the registered Voter list for that precinct.

  We are asking our State Party Chair to communicate to the SOS Our criticism of past suppression of registrations through the  DPS’s “Motor Voter” program.

• Voter file- purges and suspense file creation by the County Tax Assessor/Collector.  Oversight and audit of purges, illegal methods       Including sending registration renewals to old addresses of new drivers license applicants.  Database analysis of suspense file to determine who has been suspended, ethnicity and voting history and  testing of accuracy/honesty of purges.  Harris County Tax-       Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt proudly brags about purging (called the “suspense file”) in the area of 200,000 “unqualified” voters.

  We will draw the media’s attention to this yearly practice and if necessary, file lawsuits to challenge the efficacy of the “purges”. This has recently been called “voter caging” by the national media.

  We are asking our State Party Chair to draw statewide attention To this practice now centralized with the SOS through the statewide TEAM Voter Database.

• Republican misinformation campaigns- oversight of and legal and publicity action to counter distribution of voting information in  minority communities such as wrong polling locations, wrong voting dates, misinformation of voting qualification, “warnings” of disqualifying voters with minor unrelated infractions such as  unpaid parking tickets and tax bills.

  We will recruit volunteers and poll watchers to watch for such  Activity in precincts with a history of such suppression activity by Republican operatives.

• Inaccurate County pollworker training- Challenge of misinformation by county poll worker trainers designed to demoralize, misinform and mis- direct Democratic pollworkers to unwittingly disqualify Democratic  voters.  Emphasis here on assisting pollworkers to help qualify  “disqualified” voters, voters coming to the “wrong” polling place,  improper requirement of ID.

  We will urge our County Party to provide supplemental training of  Poll workers our committee is developing to mitigate against such unfair activity on the part  Of Republican County Clerk staff trainers and better prepare  Democratic poll workers.

  An analysis of “complaint reports” from ’06 election  Democratic  judges/workers is underway in Harris county by a task force assigned to understand the nature of such complaints and  recommend solutions to our County Party for the upcoming  elections.

• Pairing of Precincts-Oversight and challenges to offset pairings  designed to suppress Democratic votes, including flawed or non-existent advance communication of  pairings and their locations.      
• Maldistribution of voting equipment- oversight, direct and legal challenges to assure appropriate distribution of machines with emphasis on lower income and minority voting places.
• Ballot design accuracy-oversight on pre-design of ballots to  include all Democratic candidates, with  accurate  language translation. 
• Disenfranchisement of Felons-Communication to felons of their voting rights through groups dedicated to such work.
• Disqualification of Candidates- oversight of any challenges to candidate filing and qualification.
• Hart Machine Logic and Accuracy Testing-oversight of Hart machine logic and accuracy testing as well as insist that parallel  testing is scheduled through the course of the election.

We urge fellow Democrats across the State voting in counties using electronic voting systems to demand a voter verifiable paper Ballot in conjunction with the non-transparent machines.

We also urge Democrats to advocate the creation of non-partisan  Oversight committees in Counties where electronic machines  Are in use, comprised of highly trained IS and IS security   Professionals to supervise security testing.

• Breech of security in voting machine shipment- oversight and challenge to security issues found, including transport/storage by judges.  This will be scrutinized by trained Democratic volunteers and directly confronted with County election authorities, with legal action if necessary.
• Machine malfunctions-oversight of timely service to get machines operational, with emphasis on Democratic dominant precincts.
• We will demand access to County repair reports from the most recent previous election, analysis of the nature of such reports and Challenge to election authorities in advance of the ’08 election.
• Voter harassment- oversight of voter intimidation/misinformation or harassment during early voting and precinct voting through a cadre of trained poll watchers assigned to precincts with a history of such suppression activity on the part of Republicans.
• Electioneering at Polling sites- oversight and challenge of Republican judge electioneering during early and precinct voting through our poll watchers.
• Provisional Ballot suppression-assurance that provision ballots are cast and  counted.  This will be overseen through Democratic poll working training programs we are developing to augment the Republican county election training as well as scrutiny through Volunteers we will recruit to serve on our County Early Voting Ballot Board.
• Counting Station irregularities-oversight and challenge of AWOL precincts, malfunction of counting systems or improper behavior of       personnel.  Oversight of County Tax Assessor-Collector, Republican Paul Bettencourt’s  behavior during counting process.
• Recount Irregularities- oversight and challenge of recount process, procedures, personnel.