11/21/00 10:25 a.m.
The Dem MO
Democrats have targeted military voters before.

By James A. Cooley, reporter for the Lonestar Report

he controversy in Florida regarding the attempts by Democrat activists to keep military ballots out of the presidential vote totals is now nationwide news. However, voter-suppression tactics directed at members of the armed forces are not new. In fact, Texas Democrats attempted such tactics twice in 1996 and 1997. Here the ballots targeted were those cast by absentee military personnel in local elections.

It all began in 1996 when Democratic state representative Allen Place came within 12 votes of losing a recount to his Republican challenger, Becky Farrar. Place's lucky break was that 200 absentee votes from soldiers stationed at Fort Hood, most of which is within the district, were not counted because they arrived after the Election Day deadline. Had these ballots arrived on time, there is little doubt the outcome would have changed.

This is precisely what happened in two other local races in the same election cycle. In Val Verde County, a traditionally Democratic stronghold along the Texas-Mexico border, two Republicans running for county commissioner and sheriff won, respectively, by 113 and 267 votes. These totals included 800 absentee military ballots cast by airmen stationed at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio.

Early in 1997, Texas Rural Legal Aid (TRLA), an arm of the federal Legal Services Corporation, sued on behalf of a local Hispanic resident. The litigation charged the inclusion of these military ballots diluted Hispanic voting strength. The suit demanded the elections be voided and that military voters be prohibited from using the Federal Post Card Voting Application to vote in local elections.

In response, a federal judge enjoined the swearing-in of the two officials pending the case going to trial. At this point, the GOP went ballistic.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison decried as "unconscionable" and "an affront to our Constitution" the fact that public money was being used to fund the election challenge against military personnel.

Hutchison, joined by Sen. Phil Gramm and Rep. Henry Bonilla sent a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno demanding that the federal funding be yanked. The TLRA withdrew from the suit on Jan. 21, 1997. It was later dismissed.

The battle then shifted to the Texas legislature where work was underway to rewrite the Texas Election Code. State Rep. Hugo Berlanga (D., Corpus Christi) filed HB 3065, which proposed several changes to the rules covering military votes.

The bulk of the proposed changes actually made the process of casting a military ballot easier. However, one detail emerged that set off alarm bells: The changes only applied to federal elections. The bill thus had the impact of achieving through statute what the Val Verde litigation was seeking in court.

Berlanga's bill died in the House Elections Committee on a 5-4 vote, but was resurrected in the Democratic-majority House the following day as an amendment to HB 331, the omnibus elections bill. A GOP attempt the next day to strip the language on third reading failed.

Once again, the GOP went berserk. Sen. Florence Shapiro (R., Plano), a power player in the Republican-majority Senate, stated she was "shocked" at what was being attempted.

The campaign to strip the offending language was led by Rep. Jerry Madden (R., Richardson), then the vice chairman of elections committee. Madden was blunt about what he saw going on.

"This legislature, the Democrats — particularly the liberal Democrats in the legislature — have a very biased anti-military feeling about them," Madden states. According to Madden, Berlanga's amendment told military families on duty away from their declared home "you do not know enough to be able to vote for your state and local officials."

This was a particularly sore point with Madden. He was one of two members of the legislature with a son in the military stationed oversees.

Madden's son was a Republican precinct chairman at the age of 19, and was, at the time, a captain in the U.S. Army.

Madden was incensed that Berlanga apparently presumed his son, then serving in Bosnia, "is not smart enough to be able to intelligently cast his vote for state representative."

Once the spotlight hit the Berlanga amendment, the heat started coming in from veteran's groups and other military supporters. Gleeful GOP activists were open with their plans to use the issue in future election campaigns against Democrat incumbents. The military voter language was also certain veto-bait should HB 331 somehow have made it to Gov. George W. Bush.

Faced with a growing public-relations disaster, the Democrats folded and the offending passages were stripped.

The retreat, however, doesn't mean the tactic was disavowed. For instance, the following resolution was approved by the Texas Democratic Party at their 2000 State Convention:

WHEREAS Rosie Phillips, in defense of the principles of Hispanics and of the Democratic Party, placed her property as collateral to cover court costs in the Val Verde voting rights lawsuit in 1996 filed by Jovita Casarez contesting the results of a local race, and;

WHEREAS the Republican Party gave its full support to the defendants in that case, and;

WHEREAS Rosie Phillips is in danger of losing her property unless she raises money in a sum equal to the value of the property, and;

WHEREAS all Democrats at the local, state and national level should stand together to defend the principles of the Democratic Party and to help one another,

IT IS THEREFORE RESOLVED, that all Democrats are urged to help Rosie Phillips by contributing at least $2.00 to her and/or c/o to the Val Verde Democratic Party to save Rosie's land.

IT IS FURTHER RESOLVED that a direct appeal be made to all Democrats at all party conventions including the State and National Conventions and meetings to save Rosie's land.