The Disgrace Of Waller County, Texas

by Dorothy Reik
President, Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains

In an effort to prevent Mike Siegel, the Democratic challenger, from unseating the incumbent Republican in Texas' 10th Congressional District, Waller County officials announced that one of the addresses students at the historical Black college, Prairie View A & M University (PVAMU) were instructed by the county to use to register to vote was not in the proper precinct so they would have to file additional paperwork. Mike's field representative delivered a letter of complaint to the Waller County clerk and was promptly arrested. when he admitted his boss was a Democrat. He has since been released.

There has been an ongoing war between Waller County and Prairie View over voting rights of its all Black student body since eighteen year olds were given the right to vote, allowing college students to vote where they were enrolled in college. Waller County, home of PVAMU, feared that the Black students votes would affect election outcomes in the predominantly white county.

In 1970 Black students accompanied the only PVAMU student allowed to vote-- he was white! Black students began to fight for their voting rights when the Black students were denied the right to participate in the 1972 presidential election when the County used a form to be filled out only by students whose responses were then used to deny their right to vote. The students sued on the basis of a Fourteenth Amendment violation and won at the Supreme Court-- but that didn't end it.

More attacks were to follow. In 1992 19 students were indicted for illegally participating in general elections. The charges were subsequently dropped. More skirmishes followed in 2004- 2006, when Sheila Jackson Lee had to intervene, and again in 2008 when 3,000 registered voters at PVAMU were informed that the only early voting station was to be located 30 miles from the school. The students have won each battle including this last one. Waller County has announced that no further paperwork will be required from the students. The complete history can be found here.

And if the name Prairie View A & M sounds familiar, that is because it's where Sandra Bland was heading for a new job when her life was abruptly cut short. She died in police custody after being jailed for a traffic stop and kept in jail for days when she couldn't make bail. The street leading to the college is now named after her.

As Democrats continue to rake in online donations surpassing the fundraising of their Republican rivals and Paul Ryan continues his triage, leaving many Republican candidates with no party support, help is on the way. Sheldon Adelson is using millions of his one billion dollar savings from Trump's tax bill to fund attack ads against Democratic candidates. Much of the money is going to attack Randy Bryce in Wisconsin. He drove Paul Ryan out of the race and is facing a Ryan clone in November. Wisconsin is very much in play with incumbent Governor Scott Walker trailing his opponent, Democrat Tony Evers, in the latest polls. Much of Adelson's money, laundered through Ryan's sleazy SuperPAC, has been spent attacking minority Democratic candidates.

Republicans running for Congress in the 25 districts Hillary Clinton won are further endangered by Trump's recent campaigning which concentrates only on riling up his base. The Atlantic predicts that Democrats will definitely pick up 15 seats with another 5 likely and the others still in play. Between 60-88 seats could flip in November if Democrats can get their voters to the polls. One seat that Democrats were counting on may go to Republicans, as Donna Shalala trails her opponent in Florida even as other women are leading. And will Heidi Heidkamp pull off another upset in North Dakota and retain her seat? Polls continue to predict Democrats will take the House while Republicans will keep the Senate but Democrats have a chance to take the Senate if Heidkamp wins and they pick up seats in Arizona and Nevada. And then there's Beto in Texas.

And in Georgia, where we reported on voter suppression yesterday by candidate for governor AND Secretary of State Brian Kemp, voter outrage is growing and his Democratic opponent Stacy Abrams is calling for Kemp to step down as all other Secretaries of State have done in the past when they ran for office.