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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Voter Identification

Legal Battles Loom In Fight Over Voter ID Laws

Ryan J. Reilly | September 5, 2011, 7:00AM

Image From Laura Gangi Pond / Shutterstock

Conservative "investigative reporter" Matthew Vadum caused a real stir last week. As one of the many individuals who proselytizes about the threat of voter fraud and the need for restrictive measures to protect the ballot box, he's generally expected to stick to a predictable script.

The argument usually goes like this: everyone should be able to vote and that voter ID isn't supposed to make it harder for anyone to vote. Also, voter ID efforts aren't partisan, but rather about good government, and that if you have to show your ID to buy liquor or rent a movie from Blockbuster you should have to show it to vote.

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voter fraud

As Voter ID Laws Spread Across Statehouses, House GOP Telegraphs Anti-Voter Fraud Bill

Ryan J. Reilly | April 1, 2011, 1:00PM

Rep. Gregg Harper (R-MS)

With voter ID laws popping up in Republican-controlled statehouses across the country, could a federal bill be far off?

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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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voter fraud

True The Vote Signs Breitbart, Fund, Von Spakovsky For Voter Fraud Event

Ryan J. Reilly | January 25, 2011, 9:40AM

We already told you how True the Vote, the anti-voter fraud effort launched by a Texas Tea Party group, had lined up two of the biggest stars on the anti-voter fraud circuit for their upcoming national convention.

Now comes news they've added three of the biggest voter fraud alarmists in the country: Big Government founder Andrew Breitbart, Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund and former Bush Justice Department official Hans von Spakovsky.

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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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New Black Panthers

New Black Panthers Will Be Watching Polls In Houston (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | October 29, 2010, 9:52AM

New Black Panther Party Member Quanell X

So it turns out there actually are New Black Panthers in Houston. While they'll be at the polls this year, the leader of the New Black Panther Party in Harris County said they wouldn't be tolerating any of the type of behavior that took place in Philadelphia back in 2008.

"I want to say to all Houstonians and all people voting in Harris County, no member of the New Black Panther Party will have a nightstick or a billy club in their hand. That will not be tolerated, I can assure you of that," Quanell X told Fox in Houston.

"But what I can promise the King Street Patriots is that we will not tolerate any intimidation tactics coming from them against our elderly, our women and our young people," he added.

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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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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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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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