Honorable Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton PO Box 12548 Austin, TX 78711-2548
Dear GeneralPaxton: The Montgomery County Tea Party respectfully request that you utilize your office to take the appropriate and necessary action in dropping charges against four local Montgomery County residents (James Jenkins, Adrian Heath, Cybil Doyle and Roberta Cook), who were charged with ILLEGAL VOTING (known locally as the RUD 7) by then AG Greg Abbott.
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In fact, three other people, who did exactly the same thing, were actually not indicted, Benjamin Allison, Samuel Allison and Richard McDuffee. On the other hand, Bill Berntsen, Tom Curry and Pete Goeddertz pleaded out. The 10 of the 12 people who moved their voting residence and voted in the election did so after careful coordination with state and local attorneys & election officials to ensure that all of their actions were legal. The remedy we seek is to correct the unequal application of justice. The underlying premise for our request is that the law in and of itself (Election Code Sec. 1.015) is clearly ambiguous
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The case interpreting the definition of residence shows that "residence" is whatever the
voter chooses it to be. What makes this case special is that, as laymen, they contacted the authorities in advance to try to verify that what they were doing was in fact legal and they were advised that it was. There also appears to be case law that supports their actions when elected officials (those in power) do virtually the same thing. It is for these reasons that the case should be dropped in order to ensure equal 3
protection under the law . It's clear in this case that the law has been unevenly applied, as evidenced by similar issues locally and across the state, dealing with questionable voting practices. These practices have occurred when establishing local Municipal Utility Districts(MUDS) through the use of a business known as "RENT-AVOTER".
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The practices of these paid voters has, in fact, been sanctioned by your office and the
Secretary of State's Office. Back in 2010, TEN (10) residents (out of a total of 24), after consultation with the Texas Secretary of States' office and the local elections' registrar, were legally registered to vote in The Woodlands Road 6
Utility District (RUD). These residents were incensed by statements from the RUDs' managing attorney that there were board seats up for election, but then arbitrarily decided that no election was to be held because they had determined there were no residents in the district..7 Later, said attorney 8
conveniently located two newly-registered residents that just-so-happened to be granted significant
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http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2012/03/woodlands-texas-voters-who-registered-to-motel-indicted-on-voterfraud/1331571688.column 2 http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/courier/opinion/voter-residency-laws-need-more-clarity-after-local-voterfraud/article_87a6fad8-289a-5a09-b049-e9bae9ee83e6.html 3 http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/courier/opinion/voter-residency-laws-need-more-clarity-after-local-voterfraud/article_87a6fad8-289a-5a09-b049-e9bae9ee83e6.html 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAmntnpLPSw 5 http://countycitizen.com/blog/2015/10/15/highly-praised-mud-developer-uses-rent-a-voter-company-to-approve-bondelections/ 6
https://www.scribd.com/doc/148074514/Montgomery-County-Elections-Records
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https://www.scribd.com/doc/151988114/3-9-10-Open-Records-Response-No-Voters-in-RUD
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https://www.scribd.com/doc/45247614/MikePage-FINDS-Residents-March-26-2010
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privileges by local officials, all while continuing to overlook twelve additional pre-existing voters.
The original developer, who appointed the RUD board, tore down the original residences used to form \
the district in 1991and then imported approved voters in-2010 when the activists became involved and 11
pressed for elections . A cursory review of the map of the RUD demonstrates how it was deliberately "gerrymandered" to preclude the possibility of a republican form of government through natural voter control.
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Little did the RUD 10 know that the information that they had received from officials prior to the
election and the standards accepted for the RENT-A-VOTER schemes would not be extended to 13 14
them.
The advent of the RENT-A-VOTER and subsequent comments from The Secretary of State,
quoted by local television and newspaper reports,
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have mirrored what the RUD voters have stated
from the beginning. Namely that the voter decides where their residence is for voting purposes.
The RUD 10 believed they were following the law. They are not lawyers, but they sought advice in advance and believed what they were doing was within the law. In fact, even afterwards, Bret Ligon, the local DA, decided not to prosecute based on the ambiguity within the law. That should have been the end of the case; but it appears that politicians became involved and pressed for prosecution16. This is not equal protection. Rather, the involvement of politicians taints the entire process with an appearance of silencing political activists.17 18 In fact, it appears that the judge in the case amazingly had already decided that two of the remaining four, Adrian Heath and Jim Jenkins, were guilty, even before it got to trial.19 And during Jenkins' trial, relevant testimony was inexplicably blocked by the court and prosecutors, as evidenced by a Bystanders' Bill of Exceptions on Behalf of Defendant, James Alan Jenkins 20
At trial, testimony was heard that the RUD defendants had contacted the Texas Secretary of State regarding reports in which certain Federal DEA agents were claiming their office in Downtown Dallas as their residence for voting purposes21 and that the practice was defended by reference to Secretary of State Election Law Opinion GSC-122 and Attorney General Opinion GA-
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http://countycitizen.com/blog/2015/07/12/we-annotate-chronicle-one-sided-rud-story/ https://www.scribd.com/doc/45248225/voterrecords-3
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https://www.scribd.com/doc/45247614/MikePage-FINDS-Residents-March-26-2010
https://www.scribd.com/doc/27910991/Woodlands-Road-Utility-District-1-Vicinity-Map http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2012/07/woodlands-residents-tangle-with-powerful-forces-over-voterfraud/1341848133.story 14 http://www.houstonpress.com/news/perfect-timing-how-malcontent-wiseasses-tried-to-prove-a-point-about-politicsand-ended-up-charged-as-felons-6600639 15 http://abc13.com/news/questions-arise-over-billion-dollar-mud-bond/1044831/ 16 http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2012/08/texas-state-sen-tommy-williams-aided-lawyers-filing-voter-fraudwoodlands/1345648840.story 17 http://www.texaswatchdog.org/2012/03/woodlands-texas-voters-who-registered-to-motel-indicted-on-voterfraud/1331571688.column 18 http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/courier/opinion/voter-residency-laws-need-more-clarity-after-local-voterfraud/article_87a6fad8-289a-5a09-b049-e9bae9ee83e6.html 19 https://www.scribd.com/doc/146437169/Defendant-s-Motion-to-Recuse-Trial-Judge 20 https://www.scribd.com/doc/150482003/Testimony-that-was-blocked-by-the-court-and-prosecutors-in-Jim-Jenkinsvoter-fraud-trial 21 http://www.search.txcourts.gov/SearchMedia.aspx?MediaVersionID=f7861082-9685-4175-872835db4d9ef130&coa=coa14&DT=Brief&MediaID=1c80d3b4-6ce5-4e3d-9fd8-76df48cb6976 13
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http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/elo/gsc1.pdf
0141.23 A recent report on the well-established RENT-A-VOTER practice accentuates the innocence of the RUD defendants and the blatant, obvious miscarriage of justice initiated back then by the Attorney Generals' Office. In the recent report we read - "The law regarding where voters can vote is not exactly black and white." And according to Alicia Pierce, spokeswoman for the Texas Secretary of State's Office, “this (RENT-A-VOTER) might not be technically illegal”.
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Yet, none of these "rent-a-voters"
have been prosecuted by your office. Pierce couldn't speak directly about these cases, but she said " the current statute regarding voter residency doesn't have specific guidelines." To the contrary Mr. Attorney General, Election Law Opinion GSC-1 and Attorney General’s Opinion GA-0141, do in fact give specific guidelines regarding residency; the very guidelines offered in defense of DEA agents voting from their office and guidelines that the SOS says are well settled in Texas:
The definition of residence for the purpose of voter registration is well settled in Texas. As stated in the seminal case of Mills v. Bartlett, 377 S.W.2d 636, 637 (Tex.1964), "[n]either bodily presence alone nor intention alone will suffice to create the residence, but when the two coincide at that moment the residence is fixed and determined. There is no specific length of time for the bodily presence to continue. " 25
Regarding a more recent case of SPEIGHTS v. WILLIS decided: October 24, 2002 26 the Attorney General’s office stated "The State of Texas is pleased ( the Judge) has seen fit to protect these 9,000 Polk County citizens' rights to vote," In that case, we read where registered voters claiming mailboxes, as their residence for voting purposes, were upheld.
Only eight voters testified at trial; each described his or her individual circumstances. Some described little contact with Polk County. Daniel Topping testified to being registered to vote in Polk County. He and his wife own an RV lot in Arizona, and he testified to receiving mail at Mesa, Arizona. He has never been to Polk County. Muriel Ripley first registered as a Polk County voter and obtained her Texas driver's license in 1999. She was last in Polk County in April, 2000. Joseph Beador and Judith Beador own a summer home and an RV lot in California. The Beadors are registered voters in Polk County. He testified that neither of them have ever been to Rainbow's End. It is also important to point out to you that a key respected figure in the Polk County case that 27
include Attorney General John Cornyn , who personally intervened
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and venerable Montgomery
County GOP Chair Wally Wilkerson, who characterized action to challenge the voter “a perverted legal process”
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even though many of the 9000 mail box registered voters have never been to
Texas.
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https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/opinions/50abbott/op/2004/htm/ga0141.htm http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/courier/news/sec-of-state-voter-registration-residency-up-to-thevoter/article_2769af04-05fd-556b-a808-424a96e97c24.html 25 http://caselaw.findlaw.com/tx-court-of-appeals/1495199.html 26 http://lubbockonline.com/stories/100300/nat_blot10_3.shtml#.VpFDAVndeVl 27 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Attorney_General 28 https://www.scribd.com/doc/293793121/Texas-AG-Conroe-Courier-Editorial-Defends-RV-voter-rights 29 https://www.scribd.com/doc/293365520/REPUBLICAN-PARTY-CHAIR-DEFENDS-RV-VOTERS 24
By enforcing this ambiguous law, in effect, the AG's office is saying that our former president (Bush 41), as well as many military and college students, who under the same law often times register and vote from an address that is far away from what they normally call "home," are also breaking the law and should serve prison sentences. We're sure you'll agree with us that this is as absurd as the prosecution of the remaining RUD 4. If you believe they broke the law, then under equal application of the law, prosecute them all, including Bush 41. Otherwise, prosecute none of them. It's because of this absurdity in the law, that we respectfully ask your office to not only review and intervene in the cases of the four individuals identified above, but we ask you to dismiss these four prosecutions and to submit a proposal to the state legislature to clear this law up posthaste. Thank you for your consideration. Montgomery County Tea Party
John H. Wertz Co-Founder, Vetting Committee Chair
BOARD MEMBERS:
______ ________________________ Ken Vaughn, MCTP Board Chairman
_________________________ Pat Tibbs, President
_____________________________ Larry A. Rogers, Vice President
_________________________ Bob Bagley, Director
_____________________________ Dale Fessenden, Director
__________________________ Brian Crumby, Director
______________________________ Jon Oder, Director
__________________________ James Byers, Director
______________________________ Ginger Russell, Director
