Matthew Vadum

Columnist: 'Registering The Poor To Vote Is Un-American' Piece 'Indelicately Worded'

Ryan J. Reilly | November 15, 2011, 11:48AM

Conservative columnist Matthew Vadum explained to the Texas-based King Street Patriots on Monday night that his "Registering The Poor To Vote Is Un-American" article may have been "indelicately worded" but said his larger point stands.

"Why do I hate democracy and the poor?" Vadum joked, clarifying that he "wasn't saying that people shouldn't have the right to vote if they're poor."

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ACORN

Anti-Voter Fraud Tea Party Group Hosts Author Who Thinks Poor Shouldn't Vote

Ryan J. Reilly | November 14, 2011, 6:00AM

The King Street Patriots are a Texas Tea Party group with an anti-voter fraud spin off organization that is plotting a nationwide poll watching movement and advocates for voter ID laws. Matthew Vadum is a conservative columnist who thinks that registering poor people to vote is un-American and "like handing out burglary tools to criminals." On Monday, the King Street Patriots will be hosting him for lunch in Houston.

For $100, guests of the King Street Patriots can dine at Maggiano's for a four-course meal and a signed copy of Vadum's Subversion Inc.: How Obama's ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers. They'll learn all about how a group with "such an innocent sounding name and endearing logo" is really "a criminal organization with the goal of the destruction of America and the installation of a totalitarian government."

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True The Vote

Tea Party-Backed Anti-Voter Fraud Effort Touts Non-Partisanship At First National Conference

Ryan J. Reilly | March 28, 2011, 3:25PM

Anita Moncrief and Christian Adams

HOUSTON, TEXAS -- When you talk about conservatives who rail against the supposed scourge of voter fraud and support voter identification laws that many expert say depress turnout among Democratic-leaning constituencies, there's a few big names that invariably come up.

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King Street Patriots

Tea Party Group Trots Out Anti-Voter Fraud All-Stars For National Effort

Ryan J. Reilly | January 24, 2011, 9:10AM

Anita Moncrief and Christian Adams

A Texas Tea Party group that critics said trained poll watchers who intimidated voters in neighborhoods with large minority populations last year is launching a nationwide effort to put an end to what they say is the massive problem of voter fraud.

True the Vote, an outgrowth of the King Street Patriots group, held a "Texas Summit" at the beginning of the month featuring prominent anti-voter fraud speakers J. Christian Adams (a former DOJ lawyer who resigned over its handling of the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case) and Anita Moncrief, who was fired from the community organized group ACORN for allegedly misusing a credit card and then became a critic of the group.

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True The Vote

Tea Partiers and New Black Panthers To Square Off At Polls In Texas

Ryan J. Reilly | November 1, 2010, 1:15PM

Members of the New Black Panther Party, and a Tea Party rally.

Members of the fringe group the New Black Panther Party have announced they intend to be at the polls in Harris County, Texas tomorrow. So has the Tea Party-backed group True the Vote -- with more than 1,000 poll watchers, they say. Both sides have already traded accusations of voter intimidation -- but, despite all their press coverage, neither will likely play a deciding factor at the polls tomorrow.

The face off between poll watchers alleging massive voter fraud in Harris County and many voters in minority neighborhoods of Houston during the early voting period have already been racially tinged. New developments indicate it will only get worse.

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voter fraud

Justice Department To Monitor Polls In Harris County, Sheriff Joe's Turf

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 6:26PM

Catherine Engelbrecht and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Harris County, Texas and Maricopa County, Arizona are among the 30 jurisdictions in which federal observers will monitor polling place activities or Justice Department personnel will monitor the election, DOJ announced late Friday.

The Tea Party-backed group True the Vote, the Texas Democratic Party, Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee and even the New Black Panther Party have traded accusations of voter intimidation in Harris County and called for federal elections monitors to be deployed to the area.

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voter fraud

True The Vote Documents Show Hidden Donations, Republican Ties

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 2:21PM

Anita MonCrief, J. Christian Adams, David Horowitz and Rep. John Culberson (R-TX)

True the Vote, the Tea Party-backed anti-voter fraud group that has come under scrutiny because poll watchers trained by the organization have been accused of using intimidating tactics, received a large chunk of its money anonymously. It has also paid for or hosted events with several major players in the anti-voter fraud circuit.

The True the Vote organization, which is dedicated to preventing voter fraud and emerged from the King Street Patriots group, has received over $80,000 in donations, but they have not disclosed who their money is coming from. Instead, they classify their income as "general meeting donations," according to records examined by TPMMuckraker. When the Texas Democratic Party examined their records, they also turned up records of payments to EmergingCorruption, a website run by so-called ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

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voter fraud

Tea Partiers Join Rep. Jackson Lee In Calling For Federal Election Monitors In TX

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 8:42AM

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) and Tea Party activists

It isn't often you'll see Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D) and a Tea Party group agree on something. But that's just what happened on Thursday when a lawyer representing a Tea Party-backed True the Vote project wrote the Justice Department to request federal poll monitors come to Harris County, Texas.

Jackson Lee said on Thursday she is concerned about aggressive poll watchers, and requested that the Justice Department send in federal poll monitors to stop voter suppression.

Later on Thursday, the King Street Patriots' True the Vote project, which trained poll watchers in the county, requested the same thing.

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voter fraud

Rep. Jackson-Lee, TX Tea Party Poll Watching Group Trade Accusations (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | October 26, 2010, 11:26AM

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)

True the Vote, the anti-voter fraud initiative started by the Texas Tea Party group King Street Patriots, says Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) has been electioneering outside of polling places.

Jackson-Lee, on the other hand, says she has been concerned by allegations of voter intimidation by poll watchers in Harris County, where True the Vote has launched an aggressive anti-voter fraud campaign.

Yohannes Tsehai, Jackson-Lee's chief of staff, told TPMMuckraker that their office reached out to both the Department of Justice and the Harris County Attorney's office. As TPMMuckraker reported, DOJ is gathering information on the allegations.

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voter fraud

County Clerk's Office Dismisses Voter Intimidation Allegations In TX

Ryan J. Reilly | October 22, 2010, 11:08AM

Earlier this week, the Harris County (Texas) Democratic Party forwarded 14 complaints about poll watchers during early voting in the county, including allegations of voter intimidation, to the Harris County Clerk. But the County Clerk's office, run by a Republican, says they looked into the allegations and found nothing wrong.

"We investigated it, we talked to everybody there at the different locations, and they basically said it didn't happen," said Hector DeLeon, a spokesman for the County Clerk.

He said the office takes each allegation seriously. But their investigations consisted solely of calling up the polling locations where the incidents allegedly occurred to ask poll workers if there was anything wrong.

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True The Vote

Eyewitnesses Report Intimidation By Texas Poll Watchers

Ryan J. Reilly | October 21, 2010, 11:34AM

When Maureen Haver went to the polls in Moody Park -- a historically Hispanic neighborhood in Houston -- she saw three poll watchers. She told TPMMuckraker that she recognized one of the poll watchers as a member of the Tea Party group called the King Street Patriots. There were two others that were talking about the Tea Party, she added.

Haver is the Houston Director of Texans Together which has a project called Houston Votes, which has been targeted by an anti-voter fraud effort called True the Vote with connections to the Tea Party group the King Street Patriots. Haver says that, at her voting place, she saw a Hispanic woman come in who only spoke Spanish enter, and a poll worker was showing her how to use the voting machine.

"The two poll watchers hovered behind, and then after the poll worker left to let the woman vote, both of the poll watchers stood behind this woman the entire time while she was voting," Haver explained.

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King Street Patriots

True The Vote: Voter Intimidation Claims Come From 'Partisan Operatives'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 20, 2010, 5:24PM

True the Vote, the Tea Party affiliated organization that was founded explicitly to combat what they say is the widespread issue of voter fraud, posted a message on their website on Wednesday responding to allegations that poll watchers intimidated voters.

"Claims by partisan operatives and bloggers with an agenda that voter intimidation was conducted by True the Vote are false and libelous, and they should be retracted immediately," said the statement. "True the Vote has never, and will never, condone or promote voter intimidation at a polling place."

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New Black Panthers

Tea Partiers: Minority Voting Drive Is The New Black Panther Party (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | October 20, 2010, 4:29PM

Catherine Engelbrecht and members of the New Black Panther Party

At a meeting of the King Street Patriots in August, the president of the Tea Party group claimed that the fringe New Black Panther Party had set up an office in Houston, eliciting gasps from the audience.

But what was that residential looking building shown in an image displayed at the presentation in reality? The headquarters of Houston Votes, which was running a voter registration drive in minority neighborhoods.

So where did Catherine Engelbrecht, the head of the Tea Party group, come up with that connection?

"From absolutely making it up," said Jim George, a lawyer representing Houston Votes, told TPMMuckraker. "It's just like 'I understand you're a member of the Klu Klux Klan' -- simply making it up."

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King Street Patriots

Voter Registration Group Targeted By TX Tea Party Group Received Threats (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | October 20, 2010, 2:35PM

A group trying to register voters in Houston received threats and emails containing racist slurs after being targeted by a local tea party group accusing it of "voter fraud."

In emails obtained by TPM, the group Houston Votes was accused of being "a bunch of white guilt ridden assholes, NIGGERS and greasy mexican spics," "fraudulent Marxist pigs," and "American hating A-holes."

"We received a couple of threats and several harassing e-mails," Maureen Haver of Houston Voters told TPMMuckraker. "There have been several efforts, I think, just trying to race-bait and stir racial tension and part of that I think is just based on what we've received in messaging from them."

"It's really had a chilling effect on our office," said Haver, adding that one of the e-mails was reported to the FBI.

Here are some of the e-mails, which Houston Votes provided to TPMMuckraker:

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voter fraud

DOJ Probes TX Voter Intimidation Complaints During Tea Party Anti-Voter Fraud Drive

Ryan J. Reilly | October 19, 2010, 10:34PM

Catherine Engelbrecht of True The Vote

Poll watchers in Harris County, Texas -- where a Tea Party group launched an aggressive anti-voter fraud effort -- were accused of "hovering over" voters, "getting into election workers' faces" and blocking or disrupting lines of voters who were waiting to cast their ballots as early voting got underway yesterday.

Now, TPMMuckraker has learned, the Justice Department has interviewed witnesses about the alleged intimidation and is gathering information about the so-called anti-voter fraud effort.

"We are currently gathering information regarding this matter," Justice Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement confirming the Civil Rights Division's involvement.

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