First Hand Account Of Democratic Election Tactics - First Hand Account Of Democratic Election Tactics



First Hand Account Of Democratic Election Tactics 11/2/04 Today, I volunteered to serve as a poll watcher for the Republican party. To say the things I witnessed were shocking would be an understatement. In fact, I personally witnessed countless individual instances of law breaking or irregularities on the part of Democrats. I served in two polling locations where Democrats were serving as election judges and poll workers. I visited both locations with a woman we'll call Jane. Polling Location Number 1 - Fort Worth Texas The first infractions Jane and I noticed were that the election judge (not a poll worker or voter) was not only instructing people about how to vote a straight ticket, but was encouraging them to vote a straight democratic ticket. Typically, the voter would ask a question about voting a straight ticket, the judge, instead of showing them what would be necessary to vote a straight party ticket would tell them to go wait in their voting booth until he could come visit them. In some instances the voters asked how to vote a straight democratic ticket. In others, the judge was the first to mention such an option. From what I overheard the question was typically, "You want to vote a straight democratic ticket?", or "You gonna vote a straight democrat ticket?" Obviously mentioning the party without the voter first bringing it up would be considered unlawful. I overheard one instance where the election judge asked a young lady if she wanted to vote a straight democratic ticket. The young lady replied that no, she was a Republican. The election judge didn't really know what to say at that point as I suppose he knew I was near. Jane later told me that she overheard the judge saying to another voter, "You voted a straight republican ticket...is that what you wanted to do?" Obviously this behavior was unlawful and could constitute a violation of many sections of Texas election law. Together we personally witnessed close to two dozen instances of the election judge "helping" voters. In Texas, it is unlawful for an election official to take ballots from voters and handle them. Again, we witnessed close to two dozen instances of this occurring. Also early in the day, one of the election workers was volunteering to many voters what would be necessary in order to vote a straight democratic ticket. This stopped after the election judge noticed that Jane was beginning to get wise to this. By this point, Jane had made her way to the bathroom twice making calls to downtown to alert them to the chaos erupting within this polling place. Within the next hour, the election judge received at least two calls, I guess from an official, informing him that complaints had been made. Things were starting to get tense. There were instances of relatives assisting voters without taking the required oath. This stopped once we pointed it out to the judge. There was a situation where a voter, after signing in, without any interference from poll workers, studied the roles to determine if her relative had voted. Once she determined that her relative had not voted she loudly stated, "Oh there she is....I need to call her and get her down here." At this point the young lady handling the voter list said, "You need to borrow my cell phone?" She quickly changed her story to one of the voter needing the phone for an "emergency" once I alerted the election judge. The young poll worker then claimed, "You're harassing me and my voters." She was belligerent to say the least from that point forward. She attempted to poison the other poll workers against me by loudly telling them that I was deliberately harassing her. She began to question me furiously asking a barrage of questions. I attempted to tell her that I was really not permitted to speak to her concerning matters other than individual legal points. She wasn't satisfied and continued her rapid succession of questions. I wanted to respond but Jane quickly shushed me. I simply had to sit there and listen to her frantic questioning without responding. Shortly after being accused of harassment, I told the judge that I was stepping out to the bathroom. I wanted to call downtown to inform them of the supposed harassment charge. After making a call to my business associate to inform him of the calls on my caller ID, it dawned on me that someone had come into the bathroom behind me. Fortunately, I realized that it was suspiciously quiet in the bathroom. I thought that perhaps it was the election judge listening to my phone conversation. As a precaution, before calling downtown, I decided to peek under the stall wall. My suspicion was correct, the election judge was standing in the stall and had apparently long finished what if any business he had in the stall. Attempting to be sneaky, I quickly exited the bathroom to the left, away from the polling room. Immediately, the judge came out and exited towards the right. I then passed back into the bathroom to make my call. Had he followed me into the bathroom to check up on my activity? It certainly appeared that way to me. The poll workers and election judge had decided that they had had enough of us interfering in their little fiefdom. Things got bad when Jane got ejected for stepping out into the hall to answer her phone. A constable was called and she was asked to leave on the grounds that she had left and then returned to the polling place. Jane left but I stayed for about another ten minutes. In the meantime Jane had made some inquiries downtown, at which point it was suggested that I leave as well considering that I had been accused of harassment and had no witnesses should the group of poll workers turn against me. In retrospect, we did make some calls that were unjustified. We did question a few situations that turned out to be legal. For both of us, this was our first time to volunteer as poll watchers. On the other hand, as we later learned, the judge had served numerous times as an election official. He should have known better than to allow these shenanigans to go on under his watch, let alone to participate in them. Later than evening, we discovered that the election judge was inappropriately serving as a judge in that precinct. Serving in a precinct other than the one in which you live is legal under stated "emergency" conditions. No such "emergency" had been declared. As a result the judge was serving illegally. There were a few other minor irregularities such as the ballots being handed off the top of a stack by an election official instead of being spread across the table allowing the voter to choose his or her own ballot. Also, the provisional ballots were not being properly inserted into the appropriate folder. All in all it was absolute pandemonium. Polling Location Number 2 - Benbrook Texas After lunch, Jane and I turned our attention to another polling place where a complaint had been received. Supposedly, a democratic election judge had in so many words told a voter that Bush was a bastard. When we got there all was quiet. We finished the day without witnessing any further outbursts or major "irregularities". Moral Of The Story You've all heard countless news stories about fraudulent voting activity transpiring throughout the country. In future elections we need you to volunteer to be poll watchers, election judges, precinct chairs, etc. Imagine what could have transpired within these polling places had Jane and I not been there. If you have not already done so, call your party headquarters this week and get on their list to serve in future elections. Stopping voter fraud is critical. The Democrats seem to have no problem with bending the rules.....even with poll watchers present. James Bradley FTB Side Note I spoke with a number of other individuals who claimed that all the Bush signs were mysteriously missing from countless polling places throughout the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. I ultimately spoke to a guy on the ground who was engaged in trying to get them replaced. He told me that within 1 to 1.5 hours the signs were disappearing again after having put them back up. I made a call down to the Republican HQ. They also verified the story. They had received numerous calls from people claiming that the Bush signs were miraculously disappearing from polling places all over the Metroplex. Apparently, there was no lack of Kerry signs. I'll try to find out more.