How convenient.. the day after the Harris County Voter Registrar issues a report that shows that “Houston Votes!” is engaged in widespread fraudulent voter registrations, all of Harris County’s voting machines go “up in smoke” in a fire of “undetermined causes”.

Securing electronic voting machines from fire is difficult.. because if the fire doesn’t get them, the sprinkler system will. I hope there is a video feed on the warehouse.

I have a feeling this is arson. I hope there is a very comprehensive investigation of the origins of the fire. This forces Harris County to rely heavily on "vote by mail" or absentee ballots that sometimes are sent to graveyards or invalid "voters" registered by Houston Votes!

I just hope legitimate voters don't walk away when Election Day presents them with a massive line to stand in to vote.

If the “Hope and Change” crowd wants to play this way,

Other Counties better spread out and secure their voting machines, lest other “incidents happen”..

Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman Friday morning said she is confident of timely, clean elections in November, even after a fire that destroyed the county's entire inventory of 10,000 electronic voting machines.

Kaufman urged voters to cast their ballots early to help the county cope with a possible shortage of equipment on election day.

"Because I don’t expect to have 10,000 pieces to work with, no matter what we do, I’m sure that we’re going to be putting on a full court press urging people to vote early," Kaufman said.

Kaufman said she expected that the fire in a county warehouse in the 600 block of Canino, in north Houston, has destroyed $30 million worth of equipment and caused $10 million more in damage to the building.

Kaufman hopes to cobble together a collection of voting machines through loans from other counties and replacement equipment from its vendor, she said. All five members of Commissioners Court contacted her Friday morning to pledge their support in helping her with the resources needed to stage a successful election in which early voting begins in just 52 days, she said.

Kaufman encouraged people to vote early in person or by mail.

"There is no doubt in my mind that we’re going to have a timely election here and that we’re going to take care of the voters," Kaufman said.

Houston Fire Department spokesman Patrick Trahan said arson investigators were at the scene of the fire, but no cause has been determined.

The three-alarm blaze started about 4:15 a.m. at the football field-size warehouse the county uses to store its election equipment. Firefighters extinguished the flames about four hours later.

No injuries were reported.

The county’s voting machines, including eSlate equipment, were stored at the nearly 27,000-square foot facility, county officials said

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metr...73960.html

While I could see this being arson (maybe even by someone who is just disgusted with the political process period), I don't understand your connection between Houston Votes and the fire? I don't believe that the fraudulent registrations would have been stored in these voting machines??

Isn't Harris County still a democratic county (by a bit at least)? If for some reason this causes widespread delays on election day, it stands to reason (to me at least) that Republicans would stand to gain more than Democrats statewide. I think I also read this facility didn't have sprinklers. From the video at least, the fire department had to pump in a ton of water to cool things down.

However the fire started, it's a shame, that's for sure.

(08-27-2010 09:34 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  While I could see this being arson (maybe even by someone who is just disgusted with the political process period), I don't understand your connection between Houston Votes and the fire? I don't believe that the fraudulent registrations would have been stored in these voting machines??

Its more difficult to validate a voter if they are voting by mail, which the loss of machines will now require Harris County to push more than usual.

On the "in person voting" (either early or on Election Day) you see a name, address, and a date of birth on the paperwork at the Polls.

If a 65 year old woman registered to vote looks 22, something is "wrong"..

The more you rely on "non in-person voting" the higher the chance you have fraudulent voting. "Houston Scams!" can get their fake voters into the system, request a ballot for "vote by mail".. and you have basically a skewed election.

And if you have to stand in line for three hours to vote, how many will leave because of a lack of voting machines?

(08-27-2010 10:16 PM)WMD Owl Wrote:  The more you rely on "non in-person voting" the higher the chance you have fraudulent voting. "Houston Scams!" can get their fake voters into the system, request a ballot for "vote by mail".. and you have basically a skewed election.

Can't they do that with or without the machines burning up? In other words, wouldn't the option of voting by mail (fraudulently or otherwise)already be available to a person or group that wanted to engage in fraudulent mail voting? I guess I am not seeing the connection, unless, Harris County is now going to allow ballot by mail, where, before they didn't allow it.

I'm with FDub. If Houston Votes is committing fraud, and using vote-by-mail to do it, then they'd be voting by mail regardless of whether these machines burn. I just don't see the connection.

Houston Votes has done pretty thorough job of rebutting Vasquez's claims of fraud ( http://ttef.convio.net/site/DocServer/HV...?docID=462 ).