[SATLUG] OT: Making sure my vote counts

[Walt DuBose]

I hate to dispute you on one area..."because its much harder to fake a paper 
ballot than it is an  electronic one"...As one who was "around" and involved in 
the disputed 76 votes in Box 13, Jim Wells County in 1947, and in the paper 
voting issue until I left Jim Wells County in 1964, let me tell you that faking 
a paper ballot is so easy that a 4th grader can do it and no one will be the wiser.

In either case, it takes full knowledge of 1) the election place judge and 2) 
county elections administrator.  In and electronic ballot, it would take both of 
the above as well as the county judge's and probably the county attorney's 
knowledge as well as some outside computer "expert".

But in the post WWII until 1976, Jim Wells, Duval, Jim Hogg, Camron Starr, Bexar 
and a host of other counties, fake ballots were common place.  Even after the 
Texas Attorney General's special prosecutor, Mr. Rash, invested Box 13 in 1950 
Democratic Run off Election for State Senator was over and guilty parties all 
over the state were prosecuted, you still had paper ballot irregulatories.

IMHO, the "election system" is only as "truthful" as the individuals running it, 
counting and certifying the ballot count.

Walt DuBose

If you want to learn more about the "real" happenings at Box 13, we can meet for 
lunch sometime if you have 6-8 hours to spare.

http://www.eiu.edu/~historia/1999/texas99.htm

"Also quite bizarre was the fact that the final 203 names on the Jim Wells 
County's "Box 13" tally sheet were in a different color of ink and in a 
different handwriting than the previous thousand on the sheet. Strangely, they 
were also all in alphabetical order, like someone had just gone down the poll 
tax sheet and copied names down. Of the 203, "last-minute" voters at "Box 13," 
only 11 were located and questioned. All said they had not even voted!"

	Its interesting to note that all of the individuals were from Dr. Dunn's 	"rest 
home" near the Jim Well-Duval country line and all were registered 	in the Box 
13 Precinct.  Dr. Dunn had rented an bus from Alice to take 		
	his patients to Alice to vote...most were in the rest home because of 	
	their mental incapacity.  I don't know if Dr. Dunn was a friend of 	
	George Parr...I never though to ask Mr. Parr.  BTW, Mr. Parr knew me as
	"Little Cliff".  My father was Cliff DuBose the Texas Press Association
	(TPA) Election Reporter for Jim Wells and Duval Counties from 1945-1950.
	He called in election results to the TPA.  Today I think the group is
	known as the Texas News Network.

"Interestingly, Johnson never admitted to any wrongdoing in the election, but in 
an interview with Ronnie Dugger in the early-1970s, Johnson shocked Dugger by 
showing him a picture of the Jim Wells County officials smiling and holding the 
Precinct 13 ballot box. When Dugger asked what it meant and how Johnson had 
received it, LBJ said nothing and grinned. A few years later, Dugger interviewed 
Luis Salas-a Parr man and the head official at Precinct 13 in 1948. Salas 
admitted the late returns were fraudulent. Then Dugger was shocked when Salas 
pulled out a photograph-the same photograph LBJ had shown him a few years earlier."

	Luis Salas was a really mean "pistolerio"...but he used to buy me ice 	
	cream cones (just a nickle) at Eagle Pharmacy (across the street from 	
	the Texas State Bank of Alice where George Parrand had an office and
	housed the Masonic Lodge) Botica Central just 3 doors down from the
	Alice News where my father worked and next to my grandfather's cleaning
	business.  My father make me stop tkaing ice cream cones from Salas
	after the Box 13 incident.

"...So by a margin of 87 (likely illegal) votes in the primary run-off, Lyndon 
Johnson's political career reached its next level. Students of history can only 
wonder: if Johnson had lost, would there have ever been full-scale American 
involvement in Vietnam through which 58,000 young Americans would die, or would 
the important legislative leaps of the 1960s ever have occurred? The year 1948 
contains a moment that may very well have been the difference."...

	I believe more accurately it was 76 votes.

On George B Parr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Parr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Parr
On George B Parr

On the Part GEorge Parr had in the death of Buddy Floyd.
http://www.accd.edu/pac/history/rhines/StudentProjects/2002/Benavides/SmallTownResearchProject.htm

"He gained power in both the political and economic sense. He relied on the help 
from other politics, as his father had done, to do “favors” for him. By 1948 
Parr was the president of the State Banks in both Alice and San Diego. Within 
that same year he also had a hand in putting London B. Johnson into the senate. 
He had an election fixed so that LBJ would be the victor over his opponent, Coke 
R. Stevenson."

"Unfortunately, for George he also had enemies like his father who sought to rid 
Duval of Parr rule. In 1952, two Parr opposers and the son of another were 
murdered. Evidence was found against Parr that held him responsible for the 
brutal murder of Buddy Floyd. This marked the beginning of the end for Parr. His 
political enemies now swore to rid Duval of Parr. Over 600 indictments were 
brought against Parr and his political buddies, but Parr managed to escape any 
conviction."

Other information on Box 13, George Parr and the murder of Buddy Floyd can be 
found in the Book,  "Texas Mutiny...Bullets, Ballots and Boss Rule" by Sheila 
Allee, relative of Texas Ranger Captain A. Y. Allee who was one of the nemis of 
George Parr.

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R. Tyler Ballance wrote:
> Does anybody know which, if any, of the precincts in texas are going  
> with electronic voting machines? (Personally, I think they're a  bigger 
> threat to democracy than religious fundamentalists, but that's  just me 
> with my "logical thinking" again ;))
> 
> When I voted last year (or year before last, can't remember) I  
> implicitly chose not to use the electronic machines in my parent's  
> precinct (San Patricio County) explaining to the two little old  ladies 
> running the polling station that I wanted a paper trail of my  vote 
> because its much harder to fake a paper ballot than it is an  electronic 
> one, to which they replied "good point" and directed me to  a table so I 
> could fill out my ballot.
> 
> We're all tech-savvy folks around here, so I'm certain most, if not  
> all, of you understand the crucial flaws in electronic voting, so the  
> question is this, _if_ they only have electronic voting machines in  the 
> precinct I vote in next week, is there any way to (force?)  request a 
> paper ballot to ensure that my vote counts?
> 
> 
> What can I say, I'm young and naive, and still think that my vote  
> really matters ;)
> 
> 
> Cheers
> 
> R. Tyler Ballance: Lead Mac Developer at bleep. software
> contact: tyler at bleepsoft.com | jabber: tyler at jabber.geekisp.com
> 
>