David Bruce Collins—the Official Site
  • Index
  • Blog
  • Biography
  • Writing
    • Novels in Print
    • Eastern Daylight (1997) >
      • Eastern Daylight: April
      • Eastern Daylight: May
      • Eastern Daylight: June
      • Eastern Daylight: July
      • Eastern Daylight: August
      • Eastern Daylight: September
      • Eastern Daylight: October
    • Bite-Size Hungarian
  • Politics
    • Life As a Green
    • Ten Key Values of GPUS (English)
    • Issues for 2020
  • Web Links

Alán Alán in Action: A Word about Not Voting

13/2/2018

 
Does anyone know a good voting rights attorney who will work for beer money? Because if I were a more litigious lefty, I'd be licking my chops at the prospect of a history-changing lawsuit. By suppressing any mention of political parties that, for whatever reason, do not hold primary elections, the Harris County Clerk's Office is effectively partisan in nature—and that's unethical at best, unconstitutional at worst.

Longtime HCGP apparatchik Alán Alán Apurim noticed something about the information presented on the HCCO's Harris Votes website. Well, to be more precise, he noticed what information is not on the site: that voters may exercise an option other than voting in a primary or abstaining entirely.

Apurim 
sent a message to the appropriate administrator at HCCO about correcting the oversight. From the resulting correspondence, it seems that the County Clerk's staffers need to be, shall we say, deprogrammed out of the notion that our political activities must remain confined to donkeys and elephants.
​Of course, ours is by no means the only county in Texas guilty of such on omission, but Harris County is by far the most populous, with about one-seventh of all registered voters in the state.

​Here is Apurim's message to Hector DeLeon of the Voter Outreach Department, in its entirety, used with his permission, with only slight modifications to Apurim's idiosyncratic email formatting:
Dear Mr. deLeon, 

Several nationwide polls have indicated voters by a 2/3 majority 
are dissatisfied with the performance of both Republican and Dem-
ocratic Parties and would support having more political choices. 

In the interest of all potential voters, it is imperative that they be 
fully informed of their voting options before the "major" parties' 
March 6 "Election Day" primaries. Texas laws passed by the two 
afore-mentioned parties have the apparent purpose of excluding so-
called "third" parties from the ballot, and widespread publicity of 
a "primaries" election day, exclusive of mentioning the unfair advan-
tage of holding the primaries before the dates allowed for signatures-
collecting, and also informing them they cannot sign a ballot-access 
petition if they vote in a primary, helps them perpetuate the duopoly. 

The state and national Libertarian Party is already on the ballot, but 
is likewise being overlooked by the Media and your office as being a 
consideration as opposed to voting in the primaries. The Green Party,
like the Libertarian Party, does not hold primaries, and is concerned 
that those persuaded to vote in the primaries may, in ignorance of this 
law, not know they can support either of these political parties at their 
upcoming conventions, IF they don't vote in the "major" party primaries. 

I suggest the following words (or some equivalent) be added to your 
advice on how to vote in the March 6 primaries: 

"Voters interested in supporting any other political parties before 
the November elections by voting at their conventions or signing any 

petition for ballot-access (listing of that party's candidates identified 
with that party) must not vote in the Republican or Democratic primary.
" 

This would be a fair and equitable way for the Harris County Clerk 
to give the voters an aware and truthful choice in upcoming primaries 
AND Libertarian and Green Party of Texas conventions. 

Thank you, 
Alán Alán Apurim
Add to the question of "unethical" and "unconstitutional" the possibility that Harris County is ignoring the will of the majority of its adult residents. If not 2/3, at least half of the voting-age population perceives both corporate parties as inadequate. (Sorry I don't have a citation for the polls to which Apurim refers.)

​This was the best Mr. DeLeon could do by way of a reply:
Thank you for your email. 

By law, the Executive Committees of each political party oversee the conduct 
of the Primary Elections [Texas Election Code, Sec. 172.111. b]. For this reason, 
as it relates to the Primary elections, your request should be address [sic] to the 
Chair and Executive Committee of each political party.

​Thank you.
Section 172.111 begins on page 604 of this document.

Apurim gently informed deLeon that his reply was a non-answer:
Dear sir, 

By the direction of your reply, it seems you entirely miss the point of my message.  

You're telling me to send the message "to the chair and executive committee of each 
political party" — but obviously it is not in the interest of those parties to publicize the 
access to non-primary political parties. That is your responsibility, as an overseer of 
the conduct of the primary elections, to inform the voters as to what all their options are, 
especially when if certain actions (voting in a primary) will disqualify them from choices 
of which they may prefer, but may be unaware exist for them after the primaries-option. 

State law on conduct of the Primary Elections [Texas Election Code, Sec. 172.111. b] 
(that you have cited as an excuse to not fulfill my request) regards conduct of primaries 
by political parties that have them, but has nothing to do with the responsibility of the 
County Clerk's office and its accurate publicity to voters of their options in voting.

By publicizing only the Republican and Democratic parties' primaries as if they are the 
ONLY options aside from not voting at all, you are doing an inequitable disservice to the 
Libertarian and Green parties and, as I said in my original message, by acting as an in-
formation media, in doing so while not mentioning other options you are giving advantage to the Republican and Democratic parties, acting to "perpetuate the duopoly"! 

I provided a short non-partisan statement that could be used to inform voters of the 
fact that they have an option to vote in other parties' conventions (prior to the November 
election) or petition for ballot-access ONLY if they do not vote in the Republican and 
Democratic parties' primaries:

"Voters interested in supporting any other political parties before 
the November elections by voting at their conventions or signing any 
petition for ballot-access (listing of that party's candidates identified 
with that party) must not vote in the Republican or Democratic primary." 

Please do your job by informing voters of ALL their options! 

Thank you, 
Alán Alán Apurim
To be continued(?).
PDiddie link
14/2/2018 06:42:31

I sure do miss AAP's whimsical missives. Whaiever happened to the 770 group?

dbc
14/2/2018 08:20:41

HCGP stopped paying for the 770 listserv after switching the website to NationBuilder. NB can do email blasts, but it doesn't really have an old-school email exchange. I'm trying to get members to join a Googlegroup as at least a temporary solution.


Comments are closed.

    DBC Sez...

    Here you will find political campaign-related entries, as well as some about my literature, Houston underground arts, peace & justice, urban cycling, soccer, alt-religion, and other topics.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    2018
    Abby Martin
    Abortion Laws
    ACORN
    Affordable Care Act
    Ahmad Hassan
    Air Alliance Houston
    Ajamu Baraka
    Alabama
    Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
    Al Gore
    Amanda Palmer
    Amazon
    Angela Walker
    Angie Schmitt
    ANM 2020
    Annual Meeting
    Approval Voting
    Art Car Parade
    Astroworld
    Ballot Access
    Bernie Sanders
    Beto O'Rourke
    BikeHouston
    Binary Thinking
    Black Agenda Report
    #BlackLivesMatter
    Bloomsday
    B&N
    Book Review
    Borders
    Brains And Eggs
    Breast Cancer
    Brody Mulligan
    Burning Man
    Bylaws
    Caitlin Johnstone
    Caleb Alexander
    Campaign
    Campaign 2018
    Candidates' Forum
    Candidate Workshop
    Captcha
    Catastrophic Theatre
    Cenk Uygur
    Censorship
    Chelsea Manning
    Cheri Honkala
    Chicago
    Choir
    Chris Hedges
    Chris Tomlinson
    Chuck Kuffner
    City Council
    Climate Change
    Climate March
    Climate Strike
    CODEPINK
    Colin Kaepernick
    Convention
    Corporatocracy
    County Clerk
    County Convention
    County Judge
    Cover Design
    COVID 19
    COVID-19
    Cycling
    Dallas Morning News
    Dan Monahan
    Dario Hunter
    Darryl Cherney
    David Cobb
    David Rovics
    Death By Cop
    Death Penalty
    Debates
    Deep State
    Delilah For Texas
    #DemEnter
    Demexit
    #DemExit
    Democrat Primary
    Depression
    Detroit 2020
    Dichotomism
    Dick Dowling
    Disaffiliation
    District Conventions
    Donald Trump
    #DownticketGreens
    DSA
    Duopoly
    Dwight Boykins
    Early Voting
    Earth Day
    Earthworm
    Eastern Daylight
    Ecological Wisdom
    Economic Justice
    Ed Emmett
    Edie
    Egberto WIllies
    Eleanor Goldfield
    Election 2015
    Election 2016
    Election 2017
    Election 2018
    Election 2019
    Election 2020
    Election 2022
    Electoral College
    Elvis Costello
    Emancipation Park
    Emily Sanchez
    Emily Sanchez
    Endorsements
    Energy
    Environment
    Erika Martinez
    Extinction Rebellion
    Fascism
    Fauxcialism
    Fiction
    Film Review
    For The People Act
    Fourth Turning
    Francesca Fiorentini
    Fremont Solstice Parade
    Full Frontal
    Fundraising
    Gary Johnson
    Gary Stuard
    George Floyd
    George HW Bush
    George Lakoff
    George Reiter
    Georgia
    Gerrymandering
    Glenn Greenwald
    GPTX
    Gray Matters
    Green Convention
    #GreenEnter
    Green Maps
    Green New Deal
    Green Party
    Green Party Houston
    Greenwatch TV
    Gun Violence
    Hallucinogens
    Hal Ridley Jr.
    Harris County
    Harry Hamid
    HAUS
    HAUS Project
    HB 2504
    HCGP
    Higher Education
    Hillary Clinton
    HMS
    Homelessness
    Houston
    Houston Area Progressives
    Houston Astros
    Houston Chronicle
    Houston Dash
    Houston Dynamo
    Houston Fringe Festival
    Houston Press
    Howie Hawkins
    Hurricane Harvey
    Identity Politics
    Immigration
    Instant Runoff Voting
    Insurrection At The Capitol
    International Affairs
    Inverted Totalitarianism
    Iran
    Ireland
    IRV
    IUniverse
    James Joyce
    Janis RIchards
    Jennifer Mathieu
    Jesse Ventura
    Jill Stein
    Jimmy Dore
    Jonathan Franzen
    Jordan Chariton
    JosH Darr
    Julian Assange
    Juneteenth
    Justice
    Kenneth Kendrick
    Kenneth Mejia
    Kent Mesplay
    Keystone XL
    Key Values
    KPFT
    Krystal Ball
    Laredo
    Last Week Tonight
    Late Stage Capitalism
    Late-Stage Capitalism
    League Of Women Voters
    Lee Camp
    Legal Challenge
    Libertarian Party
    Lina Hidalgo
    Lisa Savage
    Local Democracy
    Mail-In Ballots
    Maine
    Maps Project
    #MarchForOurLives
    March For Science
    March On The Pentagon
    Marc Lamont Hill
    Margaret Flowers
    Marijuana
    Martina Salinas
    Mass Shootings
    Matching Funds
    Mayor
    MD Anderson Cancer Center
    Media
    Medicare For All
    Mental Health
    Metro
    Michael Moore
    Michael Pollan
    MJ Hegar
    Movement For A People's Party
    Mudslinging
    Music
    Naomi Klein
    NationBuilder
    Net Neutrality
    New Orleans
    New Zealand
    Nick Cooper
    NORML
    North Carolina
    Our Revolution
    Outlander
    Outreach
    Overdevelopment
    Pacifica
    Parkland FL
    Partisan Realignment
    Paul Ingmundson
    PDiddie
    Peace
    Pennsylvania
    People's Party Convention
    Platform
    Plutocracy
    PNC
    Police
    Police Brutality
    Politics Done Right
    Polls
    Poor People's Campaign
    Poverty
    Progressivism
    Proofreading
    ProPublica
    Puerto Rico
    Radicalism
    Ranked Choice Voting
    Ray Hill
    Recount 2016
    Remington Alessi
    #Resistance
    Rev. Barber
    Revolution
    Right-wing Terrorism
    Rosa Clemente
    Russiagate
    Samantha Bee
    San Antonio
    SB 2093
    School Shootings
    Scotland
    Scottish National Party
    Scott McLarty
    Sema Hernandez
    Sheila Jackson Lee
    Single Payer
    SKCM Curry
    Smart Growth
    Socialism
    Socialist Alternative
    Spoiler Effect
    Straight Party Voting
    Strauss & Howe
    Sunrise Movement
    Sylvester Turner
    Syria
    Tax Policy
    Ted Cruz
    Texas House
    Texas Leftist
    Texas Legislature
    Texas Progressive
    Texas Public Radio
    Texas Supreme Court
    Texoblogosphere
    Texpatriate
    The Intercept
    The North Star
    Third Parties
    Thom Hartmann
    Traffic
    Transit
    Transportation
    Trans Rights
    Travel
    Treason
    Trump Derangement Syndrome
    Tulsi Gabbard
    Turnout
    Ulysses
    Unitarian Universalism
    Urbanism
    US Senate
    UU
    Valarie Kaur
    Van Cliburn
    Vanessa Edwards Foster
    Vanessa Guillén
    Venezuela
    Vish
    Vision Zero
    War On Drugs
    Website
    Women's March On Pentagon
    World Beyond War
    World Cup
    World Naked Bike Ride
    Zeitgeist Movement
    Zendik

    Archives

    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014

Proudly powered by Weebly