I haven’t nagged you to register to vote yet

2 Responses to I haven’t nagged you to register to vote yet

1. Jim D says:

   October 4, 2006 at 8:49 am

   Hey Kuff:

   I was just heading over to that web site anyway. I sent off a change-of-voter-address form last week and I see it hasn’t made it into the system yet.

   Incidentally, though, I see that one can now download a list of all registered voters in a precinct. The list is barebones – name, registration number, and address. But it’s a free source of the most-up-to-date voter info. I think this could be very useful for the party to update their lists if they aren’t using it already. And also for independent/nonpartisan candidates “far” down ballot (JP, school board, etc.) who might not be able to afford to buy a list.

   Also, voyeurism and stalking purposes (just kidding).

   http://www.tax.co.harris.tx.us/voter/pctdatadownload/
2. Prove Our Democracy with Paper Ballots says:

   October 4, 2006 at 1:14 pm

   How ChoicePoint of them.

   Make Harris County officials stop selling our information that includes our Social Security numbers (or if they do not stop…lawyers what about liability here). No politicians nor marketers nor dirty tricksters need that kind of info. And, Harris County officials know it.

   How long did it take until they “decided” to pull birthdates? But, just on the website? How long will it take them to stop this now?

   ……….
   From:

   Voter Registration Database Searches

   The Harris County Tax Office is committed to providing technology that invites you to “get online instead of in line.” You may verify a voter’s registration status by searching the Tax Office’s voter registration database.

   Effective Immediately Birth Dates Not Available Online
   In accordance with a provision of H.B. No. 345, the Harris County Tax Office will no longer make available the birth date of individuals registered to vote on its website effective immediately. This information is still available at the downtown office or may be purchased on CD….

   H.B. 345 provides that:
   SECTION 2. Section 13.004, Election Code, is amended by adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:

   (d) The voter registrar or other county official who has access to the information furnished on a registration application may not post the following information on a website:

   (1) a telephone number;
   (2) a social security number;
   (3) a driver’s license or a number of a personal identification card; or
   (4) a date of birth.

   ………….

   This info is not needed by anyone. Big Brother officials stop selling us all down a river.

   …………..

   Dear Charles, please ask or look through the Houston Chronicle archives to see if this possibly related issue was resolved.

   ………………

   Is this another bad GOP idea, so the GOP should be asked about this? This complete guess comes about because Lynn Landes has posted a link http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingSecurity.htm to a Houston Chronicle article (Jan 19: Texas – loophole lets foreigners illegally vote) that is hidden in their archives

   Lynn Landes:

   http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingSecurity.htm

   from the Houston Chronicle

   Jan 19: Texas – loophole lets foreigners illegally vote

   But at the Houston Chronicle site it states:

   No such article.

   We’re sorry, but the article you requested is not currently available on Chron.com.

   If it’s an older article that you had bookmarked, you may be able to find it in the archives.

   If you got to this page from a current link on our site, then it’s an error. In this case, the system has automatically detected and logged the error, but you can email help@chron.com to report additional information or if you have any questions.

   ……………..

   Add the fact that Hispanic support for republicans is always inflated before an election and post election, only to be deflated some time later. The incorrect polling of Hispanics initially provides the raw numbers and room for a GOP story of a win to hang their hat on.

   Add to that the fact that before Mexico’s recent, troubled election, the FBI raided ChoicePoint’s illegal data mining of Mexico’s (and other Central and South American countries) voters data bases which also had physical descriptions included.

   Does Bush now have foreign Hispanics identified by voting patterns–perhaps used in Mexico’s recent elections and, just guessing, perhaps here in the future.

   With border security in GOP control, they can allow in selectively anyone they want…well, you can see the potential for distorting even a pure democracy… a dilemma for Democrats and their own base. This should be fiction. But, if it is doable, I would bet that the GOP is unrestrained. And, it is very troubling for everyone’s information to be made available for whatever reason….but especially, in terms of Identity Theft and Financial Fraud and Election Fraud. Maybe it is another area we need to problem solve. How do we problem solve this ahead of time, ahead of this election? Now.

   Houston Chronicle? Democratic Party? Lawyers? Others?

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