- Mar 20, 2000
- 102,407
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the ghost of "landslide" lyndon?
Henry Cuellar, a former Texas Secretary of State, has taken a 197-vote lead in a recount of ballots from his photo-finish race with Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, chairman of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus. The remaining ballots should be counted by Thursday. A victory by the upstart Mr. Cuellar would be a major blow to the liberal Caucus, which accused the Democratic primary challenger of being a closet Republican because of his prior support for tax cuts and school vouchers.
That said, the circumstances of Mr. Cuellar's sudden surge bear watching. A recount in Zapata County turned up 304 uncounted ballots, some 10% of the total cast. Officials in neighboring Webb County report that their recount came up with 115 more votes than the number of people who showed up at polling places. "It stinks to high heaven, to be honest with you," says John Puder, a top adviser to Rep. Rodriguez. Doroteo Garza, who is overseeing the recount in Zapata, disputes any charges of chicanery. "The boxes were not tampered (with) -- everything's there. The seals were not broken. The only thing that we can suspect is that those ballots were there, but they were not counted."
Some supporters of Rep. Rodriguez see the ghost of Lyndon Johnson again striding across the plains of South Texas. Mr. Johnson's political career was saved in 1948 when a mysterious Ballot Box 13 surfaced in Jim Wells County, not far from Zapata, supplying 202 votes that put LBJ over the top in his first Senate race. Historian Robert Caro conclusively proved that the missing votes were fraudulent, citing evidence that voters in Jim Wells County cast ballots in exact alphabetical order.
There's no way of telling if the missing Zapata County ballots are fishy, but the confusion should spur Texas officials to clean up the sloppy election systems in South Texas. Neighboring Mexico now has an efficient system, complete with photo ID cards for voters and ultraviolet markers and scanners to prevent them from voting twice. Texans should be embarrassed that their own state continues to make headlines over disputed elections.
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mexico's solution would probably be unconstitutional here, because being able to tell reliably if someone is elligible to vote is probably not a great enough interest for the US supreme court to impinge marginally on the ease of voting
Henry Cuellar, a former Texas Secretary of State, has taken a 197-vote lead in a recount of ballots from his photo-finish race with Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, chairman of the Hispanic Congressional Caucus. The remaining ballots should be counted by Thursday. A victory by the upstart Mr. Cuellar would be a major blow to the liberal Caucus, which accused the Democratic primary challenger of being a closet Republican because of his prior support for tax cuts and school vouchers.
That said, the circumstances of Mr. Cuellar's sudden surge bear watching. A recount in Zapata County turned up 304 uncounted ballots, some 10% of the total cast. Officials in neighboring Webb County report that their recount came up with 115 more votes than the number of people who showed up at polling places. "It stinks to high heaven, to be honest with you," says John Puder, a top adviser to Rep. Rodriguez. Doroteo Garza, who is overseeing the recount in Zapata, disputes any charges of chicanery. "The boxes were not tampered (with) -- everything's there. The seals were not broken. The only thing that we can suspect is that those ballots were there, but they were not counted."
Some supporters of Rep. Rodriguez see the ghost of Lyndon Johnson again striding across the plains of South Texas. Mr. Johnson's political career was saved in 1948 when a mysterious Ballot Box 13 surfaced in Jim Wells County, not far from Zapata, supplying 202 votes that put LBJ over the top in his first Senate race. Historian Robert Caro conclusively proved that the missing votes were fraudulent, citing evidence that voters in Jim Wells County cast ballots in exact alphabetical order.
There's no way of telling if the missing Zapata County ballots are fishy, but the confusion should spur Texas officials to clean up the sloppy election systems in South Texas. Neighboring Mexico now has an efficient system, complete with photo ID cards for voters and ultraviolet markers and scanners to prevent them from voting twice. Texans should be embarrassed that their own state continues to make headlines over disputed elections.
------------------------------------
mexico's solution would probably be unconstitutional here, because being able to tell reliably if someone is elligible to vote is probably not a great enough interest for the US supreme court to impinge marginally on the ease of voting
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