By Lynn Ashby 25 April 2016
To: All Patriotic Texans
From: Another Patriotic Texan
Subject: Voter Fraud
Fellow God-fearing, gun-toting, red, white and blue (mostly white) Texans, I call on you once again, just as you prevented a military takeover of Texas by Jade Helm 15, to fight another sneak attack on our life, liberties and pursuit of hippies. This time those um-American slime balls are trying to wrestle away our Constitutional right to elect people who tell us what we want to hear. Those varmints want to vote illegally. That’s right, they are attempting to win elections by putting into office crooks, cheaters and those state officials who are not yet under indictment.
But first let me give you some background since most of you don’t read those left-wing newspapers, or anything else, for that matter. According to the Austin American-Statesman (speaking of left-wing) our Kenyan President, Barack Ali Hussien Mohammed Obama, recently visited Austin to speak to the South by Southwest Interactive conference. There he said that the U.S. is the world’s only advanced democracy that “makes it harder for people to vote.’’
This is a veiled reference to voter registration hurdles in dozens of states, including Texas, by forcing voters to present a photo ID before casting a ballot. To add insult to inhalants, he said, “The folks who are currently governing the good state of Texas aren’t interested in having more people participate.”
Well, our great governor, Greg Abbott, quickly replied (three days later) that our voting requirements were necessary because: “The fact is voter fraud is rampant — and in Texas, unlike some other states and unlike some other leaders, we are committed to cracking down on voter fraud.” Is it really “rampant?” Absolutely, by the millions, but let’s look at the record. First is PolitiFact, a non-partisan fact-checking organization which investigates pols’ more controversial statements to see if they are true. It’s a gold mine because our pols, from both parties, are truth challenged. In this case. PolitiFact determined that, according to the Texas attorney general’s records, 18 instances of voter fraud have been confirmed in Texas since 2002.
Then we have a student group at Arizona State University’s journalism school which compiled a nationwide database that showed in Texas there were 104 cases of alleged election fraud since 2000. The investigative journalists determined that 37 of the 104 Texas allegations were made against voters, but a whopping 15 had resulted in a guilty plea or conviction. An August 2014 analysis made by a Rutgers University political scientist professor, Lorraine Minnite, found three – yes, THREE! — credible allegations of fraud in Texas elections since 2000. We must put these horrifying numbers in perspective: From 2000 to 2014, per the Texas Secretary of State’s online record, about 72 million ballots were cast in Texas, and that’s not even counting municipal and other local-only elections. My fellow patriots, 18 or even as many as 104 votes out of 72 million could easily swing our Legislative or Congressional seats into the commie community.
Charges of an abundance of voter fraud have been made only by Republicans, but the Dems can be just as wrong in the other direction. U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Dem from Dallas, wrote in an opinion column published Aug. 8, 2013, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:“Studies have shown that voter fraud is non-existent in Texas.” She later explained she should have written “virtually non-existent.”
At this point we must note that Texans can vote by mail or in person, and our voter ID law, the very strictest in the nation, is only aimed at fraud in person. I mean, you don’t have to present a photo ID to the postal carrier when you mail in your ballot. So here we have a ticking time bomb. Just how prevalent is this treasonous act? Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., went on ABC’s This Week on Aug. 9 and said: “Take Texas for example, where Lyndon Johnson’s obviously from, they passed these voter ID laws. In the decade before it, 10 years, they only prosecute two people for in-person voter ID, only two people. You’re more likely to get struck by lightning in Texas than to find any kind of voter fraud.”
According to PolitiFact, in 2014, the National Weather Service said the odds of being struck by lightning are1 in 960,000. Texas had the second-highest number of lightning-related fatalities from 1959 to 2013, behind only Florida. But that’s mostly because Texas is so big, both in terms of area and population; once you adjust the death rate, Texas actually ranks 33rd. The NWS said that the probability of being struck by lightning in Texas is right around 1 in 1.35 million. So how does this 1 in 1.35 million chance compare to the probability of finding voter fraud? OK, let’s do the math: Four cases of fraud for 72 million votes makes the chance of voter fraud 1 in 18 million. So you really are more likely to be struck by lightning in Texas than turn up any case of voter fraud. But can we trust figures from some Yankee senator, or the stats from a federal government that tells us we can keep our doctors? I say the number of Texans being struck by lightning is far more, or maybe less.
How rampant is voter fraud? In 2015, Francisco “Frankie” Garcia, Rebecca Gonzalez, Diana Balderas Castaneda and Guadalupe Escamilla were convicted of trying to buy votes in a Donna school board race with cocaine, cash, beer and cigarettes. It’s a small step from the Donna school board race to Congress or the White House. Some lefty pinkos say Texas’ strict voter laws are a transparent attempt to screen out minorities who would probably vote Democratic. I reply: So? Now our course of action is clear. No one gets to vote in Texas without a photo ID, a note from their doctor that they are heathy enough to cast ballots and they must pass a urine test for coke.
Ashby votes at ashby2@comcast.net
