Burnt Orange Report

Heflin's Attorney Laying Ground for Election Contest

By Andrew Dobbs

So we've heard all of the stuff about recounts and about contesting elections on the floor of the House, and some of you seem to have found a way to convince yourselves that the GOP won't steal this thing right out from underneath us.

Let me make it really clear- these guys will stop at nothing to win. They broke the law, twisted arms, threw out the rules and just generally ignored every convention of ethics, law, decency and duty in 2003 to ram gerrymandered maps, huge protections for negligent corporations and deep cuts in vital programs down the throats of Texas families.

Now, for those of you who think that Heflin will settle for a recount and then quietly slip into a lucrative lobbying career, check this out from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Because of the narrow margin, Heflin and his attorney were still considering late Tuesday whether to ask for a recount, and perhaps for the 150-member, Republican-dominated House to review the balloting to make sure that the election was carried out legally. The deadline for requesting a recount is Nov. 20.

"We are vigorously pursuing all of our options," said Andy Taylor, a former Texas assistant attorney general who specializes in election law. "We have not yet made a decision as to whether we will, in fact, seek a recount. But we are gathering information to make a fully informed decision."

Taylor said that observers hired by the Heflin campaign to watch the final vote counting Sunday and Monday questioned whether some legally cast ballots were discarded and whether illegally cast ballots had been counted.

Taylor said Heflin has not ruled out asking the full House to nullify the election results, which would force Gov. Rick Perry to order a second election early next year.

Alright, we all know that the FWST is actually mistaken about the results of an election contest. They can force Perry to call new elections, or they could pick either Vo or Heflin the winner. Harold Cook did some research for us down at the party and found that in the 3 cases where elections have been contested, two were given to the Republican candidate (by a Democratic-controlled panel), and one time new elections were called. If Craddick wants to, he can appoint 6 hardcore Right wing, corrupt-ass Republicans and Sylvester Turner to a panel that will then appoint Heflin to his old seat.

But to do that, Heflin's people have to find evidence of fraud and prove it up. Now Taylor has found "questions" about the vote count. Interestingly enough, neither the dozen Republican observers of the count nor the huge media presence during the count felt the need to raise a stink about this while the count was going on (controlled, by the way, by Republican election officials). Essentially, Taylor is suggesting that Republican election officials allowed their poll workers to illegally discard Republican votes while a dozen Republican observers and a prominent Republican attorney and several reporters were stannding right over them- it doesn't pass the smell test.

But Taylor is suggesting just such a fabrication. If they were discarded or if illegal votes were a part of the original count then a recount wouldn't solve his problem. Only an election contest would. Taylor has no other recourse and no other reason for suggesting such a preposterous scenario. It is becoming increasingly clear that the GOP simply won't give up this seat- voters be damned.

Taylor's fantasy makes it very clear that an election contest is not only possible, but highly likely. And with the corrupt, intensely partisan, Right wing leadership of the Texas House (who, remember, ordered Taylor "don't come back without Heflin"), you can bet that the panel will be rigged to give the seat back to Heflin. We need to keep the public aware of this because an election is about to be stolen on live television, right under our very noses.

Keep spreading the word and get ready for unholy hell to break loose on the floor of the House.

Posted by Andrew Dobbs at November 10, 2004 04:11 PM | TrackBack