Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I'm wondering if what happened here is legal in Texas? or anywhere in the U.S for that matter.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2012/11/03/breaking_naacp_takes_over_polling_station_advocates_for_president_obama_at_houston_polling_location

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOUSTON, TX - Friday afternoon at an early polling place located at 6719 W. Montgomery Road in Houston, NAACP members were seen advocating for President Barack Obama according to volunteer poll watchers on location at the time.

According to Eve Rockford, a poll watcher trained by voter integrity group True the Vote, three NAACP members showed up to the 139 precinct location with 50 cases of bottled water and began handing bottles out to people standing in line. While wearing NAACP labeled clothing, members were "stirring the crowd" and talking to voters about flying to Ohio to promote President Barack Obama.

After watching what was occurring, Rockford approached Polling Supervisor Rose Cochran about what she was seeing.

"I went to the polling supervisor and let her know that it was not appropriate that they were in the building handing out water. She ignored me. I repeated my statement. She told me that she would handle it. She did nothing. I then went to the assistant supervisor and he stood up, walked over to another table and then sat down. I then walked into the waiting room and they were reloading another dolly with more cases of water," Rockford said in a True the Vote incident report.

After handing out water and advocating for President Obama, the NAACP members started handpicking and moving people to the front of a long voting line inside the polling place according to the incident report. After multiple complaints from voters about the line cutting, Rockford received a phone call from downtown telling her to “stand down.”

“All of the sudden one of the clerks, Dayan Cohen, said that someone wanted to speak to me on the phone. It was someone from downtown. I got on the phone and she said she was from downtown and that I needed to stand down and that it was okay for the NAACP to be within 100 ft. and they could hand out water. I told her that the NAACP was inside the building, wearing the NAACP clothing and caps and were handing out water and moving people from the back of the lines to the front of the lines,” Rockford said.

At this point, NAACP members were instructed to turn their clothing inside out, which they refused to do and said they weren’t going to stop their actions inside the polling place. Their behavior and actions to move people to the front of the line continued for the rest of the evening. Texas State Representative Sylvester Turner, a former Texas NAACP leader, was also seen outside the building talking with voters.

“The NAACP basically ran this poll location and the judges did nothing about it,” Rockford said.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I wouldn't necessarily mind the handing out of bottled water(as long as it wasn't just to democrats)...but the moving people to the front of the line(if true) is what I think needs to be answered.

GG

...which is why with the sheer number of polling locations it's absolutely impossible to insure integrity across the board, and even if fishy behavior is spotted, what can the people running the place really do about it?

From Wikipedia:

True the Vote is a controversial Tea Party-affiliated vote-monitoring organization whose stated objective is stopping voter fraud. True the Vote trains volunteers to be election monitors and to comb through voter rolls and identify people that its volunteers believe are ineligible to vote. It also holds local rallies to promote voter ID laws.[1] True the Vote has been criticized for engaging in caging, voter intimidation,[2] and advancing hysterical statements about the pervasiveness of voter fraud.[3] True the Vote is based out of Houston, Texas and their current president is Catherine Englebrecht.[1] An investigation of the organization has been initiated by Congressman Elijah Cummings.

While I think that all possible instances of electoral interference should be investigated, I think this group aren't exactly bastions of truth. Wait and see if anyone else verifies this story first, because it just sounds made up.

Maddermax wrote:
From Wikipedia:

True the Vote is a controversial Tea Party-affiliated vote-monitoring organization whose stated objective is stopping voter fraud. True the Vote trains volunteers to be election monitors and to comb through voter rolls and identify people that its volunteers believe are ineligible to vote. It also holds local rallies to promote voter ID laws.[1] True the Vote has been criticized for engaging in caging, voter intimidation,[2] and advancing hysterical statements about the pervasiveness of voter fraud.[3] True the Vote is based out of Houston, Texas and their current president is Catherine Englebrecht.[1] An investigation of the organization has been initiated by Congressman Elijah Cummings.

While I think that all possible instances of electoral interference should be investigated, I think this group aren't exactly bastions of truth. Wait and see if anyone else verifies this story first, because it just sounds made up.

I don't fundamentally disagree with you, but wikipedia is hardly the best source either. The fact that Elijah Cummings is "investigating" them actually leads me to believe the wikisource is biased.

GG

It's also a group that got caught blatantly photoshopping a video to make it seem like black voters were advocating fraud:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/glenn-w-smith/right-wing-voter-suppress_b_706550.html

(Note, true the vote and king street patriots are linked groups run by the same people, as mentioned in the article).

In all likelihood it is quite possible there were volunteers at the poll handing out water, which is perfectly legal. But who goes into a site and starts moving a line around? That sounds completely stupid and untrue - people just don't do that, and people in lines don't let it happen without comment.

Maddermax wrote:
It's also a group that got caught blatantly photoshopping a video to make it seem like black voters were advocating fraud:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/glenn-w-smith/right-wing-voter-suppress_b_706550.html

(Note, true the vote and king street patriots are linked groups run by the same people, as mentioned in the article).

In all likelihood it is quite possible there were volunteers at the poll handing out water, which is perfectly legal. But who goes into a site and starts moving a line around? That sounds completely stupid and untrue - people just don't do that, and people in lines don't let it happen without comment.

Why it needs to be investigated.

Also it's in Texas....which Obama has no chance to win anyway.

GG

 generalgrog wrote:

Maddermax wrote:
It's also a group that got caught blatantly photoshopping a video to make it seem like black voters were advocating fraud:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/glenn-w-smith/right-wing-voter-suppress_b_706550.html

(Note, true the vote and king street patriots are linked groups run by the same people, as mentioned in the article).

In all likelihood it is quite possible there were volunteers at the poll handing out water, which is perfectly legal. But who goes into a site and starts moving a line around? That sounds completely stupid and untrue - people just don't do that, and people in lines don't let it happen without comment.

Why it needs to be investigated.

Why?

Because it's being reported only by members of a group which is already being watched themselves for voter interference?

This "True the Vote" group is being '"trained" that they need to "confront" anyone who even looks like a Democrat and require to see their identification.

It's a blatant intimidation tactic on the part of the Tea Party and by extension the Republicans.

If some of the voters who were at the polling station corroborate the story or video gets released of it, I'll believe it. Until then I'll treat this story with the same level of skepticism I treat anything from Fox News.

They have lines in Texas? I thought it was something only the British did.

And if I'm honest, I can't see how this would help Obama's cause. It'd just make the Republicans (as well as anyone with a sense of moral decency) want to vote Republican even more. And even if it was helping Obama, I don't really mind, given that I want Obama to win. It may sound a little immoral, but if it helps (which it won't) then the end justifies the means.

 p_gray99 wrote:
They have lines in Texas? I thought it was something only the British did.

We invented standing in them, Texans invented dancing in them.

 Avatar 720 wrote:

 p_gray99 wrote:
They have lines in Texas? I thought it was something only the British did.

We invented standing in them, Texans invented dancing in them.

So moving people a out in the line might have been a do-si-do? Aha, It all makes sense now.

Where are the pictures?

Who was the caller from "downtown" who allegedly overruled her?

Also, are there any other corroborating witnesses? I mean, I have to imagine in Texas at least half the voters were Republicans, right? Not one called a TV station or the police or anything? Townhall is essentially a glorified blog that allows people to make things up so they aren't really trustworthy, in my opinion, but I'm open minded if there is more to it.

Yeah photo evidence or something, maybe a video? Not like half the population of the planet doesn't have a camera on them these days...

I would find it odd that if such a thing happened in Texas of all places, that no one would have a cell phone to snap pics.

If it was me. I be videoing everything just to have my 5 min of fame...as I'm sure the rest of you all would do to

If only Texas had not refused the offer of neutral observers from the UN, this could not have happened.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
If only Texas had not refused the offer of neutral observers from the UN, this could not have happened.

Clearly it is all a massively orchestrated conspiracy!

I thought they can't get within 300 ft of a polling station? Same as Ohio(?) which is a 100 ft.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
If only Texas had not refused the offer of neutral observers from the UN, this could not have happened.

Nicely said.

 Ouze wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
If only Texas had not refused the offer of neutral observers from the UN, this could not have happened.

Nicely said.

I disagree, but only on the grounds that I don't think this actually happened

If it had there'd be cell phone videos all over the internet and as far as I know there are none.

 LordofHats wrote:

 Ouze wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
If only Texas had not refused the offer of neutral observers from the UN, this could not have happened.

Nicely said.

I disagree, but only on the grounds that I don't think this actually happened

If it had there'd be cell phone videos all over the internet and as far as I know there are none.

I disagree with your disagreement, on the grounds that if the UN or neutral observers had been present--this story wouldn't even exist.

It's legal had they been a certain distance from the polling location. Which they clearly weren't. Clear violation here, but the media won't cover it.

 Kanluwen wrote:
I disagree with your disagreement, on the grounds that if the UN or neutral observers had been present--this story wouldn't even exist.

You believe in the UN's ability to actually prevent something illegal from happening?

I have some magic beans for sale, if you'd be interested.

 Harriticus wrote:
It's legal had they been a certain distance from the polling location. Which they clearly weren't. Clear violation here, but the media won't cover it.

If there had been a "clear violation here", Fox News would be all over this crying foul.

 Ouze wrote:
Who was the caller from "downtown" who allegedly overruled her?

Also, are there any other corroborating witnesses? I mean, I have to imagine in Texas at least half the voters were Republicans, right?

Houston is a Democratic stronghold, and while Texas' electoral votes are typically a given for the (R) in the Presidential race there is a solid Democratic feel in some parts of the state.Just like not all California is Liberal.

It's Texas, if there was line cutting people would have been shot.

 Kanluwen wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:

 Ouze wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
If only Texas had not refused the offer of neutral observers from the UN, this could not have happened.

Nicely said.

I disagree, but only on the grounds that I don't think this actually happened

If it had there'd be cell phone videos all over the internet and as far as I know there are none.

I disagree with your disagreement, on the grounds that if the UN or neutral observers had been present--this story wouldn't even exist.

Even if Texas hadn't kicked them out no one would have been there. There was going to be forty four observers from the OSCE spread out across the COUNTRY plus their "HQ" team in I believe DC. This is one small polling place.

Didn't Katrina blow New Orleans 100 miles west and rename it Houston?

Hard to believe this happened though. When the Black Panthers showed up to intimidate white voters in 2008 there were all sorts of videos of it. Sweeping it under the rug distracted Eric Holder from selling guns to narcocartels for almost a week. A WEEK! Could have been longer, thank god for the MSM.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:

 LordofHats wrote:

 Ouze wrote:

 Kilkrazy wrote:
If only Texas had not refused the offer of neutral observers from the UN, this could not have happened.

Nicely said.

I disagree, but only on the grounds that I don't think this actually happened

If it had there'd be cell phone videos all over the internet and as far as I know there are none.

I disagree with your disagreement, on the grounds that if the UN or neutral observers had been present--this story wouldn't even exist.

Even if Texas hadn't kicked them out no one would have been there. There was going to be forty four observers from the OSCE spread out across the COUNTRY plus their "HQ" team in I believe DC. This is one small polling place.

I'm aware.

But the general idea behind having observers is that you don't tell people exactly where they are going to be. Nor do you have them wearing big old "UN" armbands.
If you think there's even a slight chance you can get caught, you're a lot less likely to do something wrong.

 Kanluwen wrote:

I disagree with your disagreement, on the grounds that if the UN or neutral observers had been present--this story wouldn't even exist.

So your argument is that a story that you are skeptical of wouldn't exist at all if the UN were present?

I find that a little silly Liars do as liars is.