VIA EMAIL

October 15, 2010

T. Christian Herren

Chief

Voting Section

Civil Rights Division

Department of Justice

Room 7254 - NWB

Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.

Washington, DC 20530

Dear Chris:

I trust this finds you well.

My client is True the Vote, Inc., a citizens group based in Houston, Texas.

True the Vote has hundreds of volunteers committed to promoting electoral integrity. They are ready to

assist the Department of Justice and Texas election officials by uncovering instances of fraud in

registration and voting. True the Vote has undertaken a comprehensive electoral integrity campaign in

Harris County, Texas. Their mission is to promote electoral integrity in both the registration process as

well as during elections. They recognize that government agencies like yours have limited resources and

cannot always dedicate the requisite attention to investigations. Their hope is that if and when they

discover problems with the integrity of the electoral process, government agencies with oversight will

undertake an appropriate inquiry.

Because True the Vote has discovered a variety of violations of federal law in Harris County, Texas, within

the Departments jurisdiction, they are referring a number of the matters to the Department of Justice.

Supporting evidence accompanies this request to conduct further investigation of these matters.

Because this is a preliminary referral, I hope that the Department will make additional inquiries in light

ELC Election Law Center

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of these revelations. Nevertheless, once my client completes further factual investigation, they will

forward that information to you.

Many of the voter registration problems discussed below may have their genesis in the voter registration

activities of an organization called Houston Votes. This organization has a number of deputized

registrars who comb the community and offer registration forms to individuals. In each instance, the

identity of the deputy registrar is known and an identification number is provided. The ability to identify

the offending registrars should greatly assist the Department.

As you know, 42 U.S.C. 1973i(c) and 42 U.S.C. 1973gg-10 are criminal statutes which relate to voter

registration fraud. In sum, the procurement or submission of voter registration applications that are

known to be materially false, fictitious or fraudulent is a federal felony subject to five years in prison.

Anyone who gives false information as to his name, address or period of residence is also subject to

five years in federal prison.

Obviously it would not be a difficult matter for the Department to match any wrongdoing with particular

deputy registrars.

Persons claiming to be noncitizens have been registered to vote in Harris County.

Of course you are aware of the various issues surrounding the citizenship check-off box on the federal

voter registration form. An issue not subject to debate is that an applicant who claims they are not a

citizen of the United States may not be registered to vote. In Harris County, however, people claiming to

be non-citizens have been registered to vote. My client presumes they are non-citizens because they

marked NO to the question, Are you a United States Citizen? or they failed to answer Yes to this

question. Some examples of the registration forms where the citizen box is checked, No are as

follows:

1. Bayron Leo Castro was registered to vote (VUID #117187524) despite marking NO to the question,

Are you a United States Citizen? He also noted on the form that he has neither a Texas drivers license

nor a Social Security card.

2. Giovanna Guzman was registered to vote (VUID #1171828471) despite marking NO to the question,

Are you a United States Citizen? She also noted on the form that she has neither a Texas drivers

license nor a Social Security card.

3. Marta D. Morales was registered to vote (VUID #009429514) despite marking NO to the question,

Are you a United States Citizen? She also noted on the form that she has neither a Texas drivers

license nor a Social Security card.

4. Rodrigo Salazer was registered to vote (VUID #1171853313) despite marking NO to the question,

Are you a United States Citizen? He also noted on the form that he has neither a Texas drivers license

nor a Social Security card.

5. Gregorio Matias was registered to vote (VUID #1171964586) despite marking NO (as well as Yes)

to the question, Are you a United States Citizen? He also noted on the form that he has neither a

Texas drivers license nor a Social Security card.

6. Pedro Morin was registered to vote (VUID #1171874884) despite marking NO (as well as Yes) to

the question, Are you a United States Citizen? He also noted on the form that he has neither a Texas

drivers license nor a Social Security card.

7. Chong Wang was registered to vote (VUID #1171938695) despite marking NO (as well as Yes). to

the question, Are you a United States Citizen? He also noted on the form that he has neither a Texas

drivers license nor a Social Security card.

8. Sanchez R. Sanrbez was registered to vote (VUID # 1172025775) despite marking NO (as well as

Yes). to the question, Are you a United States Citizen? He also noted on the form that he has neither

a Texas drivers license nor a Social Security card.

9. Suadoca Eliser was registered to vote (VUID #1171743204) despite marking NO (as well as Yes). to

the question, Are you a United States Citizen? She also noted on the form that she has neither a Texas

drivers license nor a Social Security card.

10. Oswald Hernandez was registered to vote (VUID #1171961390) despite marking NO (as well as

Yes). to the question, Are you a United States Citizen? He also noted on the form that he has neither

a Texas drivers license nor a Social Security card. Hernandez also failed to list any residence address

whatsoever. Nevertheless, he was registered.

In addition to the forms where the applicant checked, No to the questions regarding citizenship, many

registration forms show that the applicant failed to mark Yes in the citizenship box. At a minimum,

further inquiry should have occurred before these voters were entered into the registration system.

Ideally, the registrations should have been rejected until such time as the registering body could verify

that they were citizens.

11. Derrick Koonce was registered to vote (VUID #1171938505) despite failing to mark the box Yes in

response to the question Are you a United States citizen? He also noted on the form that he has

neither a Texas drivers license nor a Social Security card.

12. Lance Barnett was registered to vote (VUID #1171851664) despite failing to mark the box Yes in

response to the question Are you a United States citizen? He also noted on the form that he has

neither a Texas drivers license nor a Social Security card.

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13. Juliana Lopez was registered to vote (VUID #1171872674) despite failing to mark the box Yes in

response to the question Are you a United States citizen? She also noted on the form that she has

neither a Texas drivers license nor a Social Security card.

Attachment A provides the voter registration applications summarized above, all of which contain

problems regarding the citizenship check-off box. (The handwritten notation on the forms is the Harris

County voter registration number.)

In addition to the previous examples cited herein, my client will be conducting an extensive inquiry into

whether or not more noncitizens registered to vote in Harris County. They will also investigate whether

or not any of those people who stated that they were not citizens on their registration forms did, in fact,

participate in any federal elections. My client will forward any relevant information to the Department.

Understand that the list above was based on a very small sample of registration forms reviewed. There

is some chance that a more comprehensive review will reveal more extensive registration of those

claiming to be noncitizens. Because the Department has civil oversight of the Help America Vote Act,

and criminal oversight of non-citizen participation in federal elections, I presume that the results of this

secondary inquiry will be of great interest. In the meantime, I believe there is sufficient evidence to

open an investigation into whether or not non-citizens are being improperly registered to vote in Harris

County. As you know, the Department has conducted extensive litigation throughout Texas to enforce

Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. My client would urge you to consider tackling problems of

registration fraud there with similar zeal.

Names of voters and signatures do not match

Under sections 42 U.S.C. 1973i(c) and 42 U.S.C. 1973gg-10, it a federal felony to submit false, fictitious

or fraudulent voter registration forms. My client has obtained a number of voter registration forms

which contain a voter name explicitly distinct from the signature. They are provided in Attachment B.

Simply, a signature was attached to these forms that bore no relationship to the name of the voter

purporting to register. As before, this referral represents a small sample of forms submitted to Harris

County voter registration officials. My client is conducting a more comprehensive review of forms for

similar activity, and will forward to you those results when they are available. In the meantime, it is

obvious that this small sample provides a more than adequate factual predicate to open an investigation

into violations of 42 U.S.C. 1973i(c) and 42 U.S.C. 1973gg-10 as well as violations of the Help America

Vote Act and Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act.

The entries below summarize Attachment B. They contain information where voters have registered

to vote in Harris County, Texas and the voter application form shows a different name of the voter than

the signature on the application form. (Name registered; approximation of signature name; registration

number):

1. Tamackayn Harrison; Bra Kelly; 1172401377.

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2. Jason King; Jemma Noel; 1172524200.

3. Donald Evans; Desomond Evans Steman; 1172230390.

4. Stephanie Rodrigues; Stephanie Garu; 1172137349.

5. Vanessa Brown; Vanessa Owens; 1172167963.

6. Calvin Jones; Calvin Lavergone; 1171965571.

7. Mtz Tabera; Jose Tabera Martinez; 1171823465.

Note additionally that in every instance, the applicant has checked the box on the form stating I have

not been issued a Texas Drivers License/Personal Identification Number or Social Security Number.

Potential forgeries in voter registration applications.

Attachment C reveals potential forgeries on voter registration applications. A single individual appears

to be signing multiple documents, forging the voters signature. There is a telltale 3 embedded in the

written letter J on numerous registration applications where the voter purportedly signs. For

example, on the voter registration application of Adam Elex Riley, a volunteer deputy named Jonathan

Hawkins witnessed the application. His Harris County deputy registrar number is #127480. Note that

Mr. Hawkins signs his name with the telltale 3 embedded in the J in Jonathan.

The same telltale 3 appears in the voter signature line for the following voters (name; registration

number):

1. Joshua Webber; 1171949401. Note that a Joshua Webber with the same birthday and address is

registered twice in Harris County with different registration numbers. The second registration is

included and bears a voter signature entirely different from the signature in the Webber application for

registration number 117194901.)

3. Jenard O Hubbard; 1172230272.

4. Jamarcus Joevate Randolph; 1172401214.

5. Reginald Jones; 1172404236.

6. Joanna Moore; 117219295.

7. Jamark Jenkins; 1172364288.

8. Dontray Jessie; 1171940277.

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9. Jose Zamura; 1171740729.

10. Joeniquea R. Johnson; 1173592842.

11. Patrick Johnson; 1172421143.

12. Jarrie Jones; 1109029247.

13. Johnathan A. Me_____; 1171937489. (Full name indiscernible from the form)

14. J_______ Garner; 1171939438. (Full name indiscernible from the form)

Voters Registered Multiple Times

My client has discovered multiple duplicate registrations of the same individual in Harris County. This

would seem to warrant an immediate investigation under Section 8 of the NVRA. Obviously a system

exists in Harris County which allows duplicate registrations. The activities of the deputy registrars appear

to be exacerbating duplicate registrations as these voters were in some instances registered by the

roving deputies. Obviously if someone is registered to vote more than once in the same jurisdiction, it

makes it more likely that they will be able to cast multiple ballots. From the small sample my client

reviewed, the following duplicate registrations were detected. I have included copies of these

registrations as Attachment D. (Name; Voter ID #1; Voter ID #2; DOB)

1. Victor M. Nickerson; 1172194319; 1111773016; 11-27-88.

2. Jose Gomez; 1171852583; 1172054066; 4-15-87.

3. Veronica Gunner; 1171745912; 1110150337; 4-5-61.

4. Maria Rios; 1172045925; 1116932364; 3-10-56.

Omissions List

Lastly, my client has reviewed the omissions list for the November 2008 general election. The

omissions list acts as a sign in sheet for voters who would, essentially, qualify for a provisional ballot. A

voter who believes they are registered in that precinct signs the omissions list and is presumably given a

provisional ballot. There are some concerns that in some precincts, the signatories were allowed to vote

a regular ballot instead. A review of a small portion of the 2008 omissions list reveals numerous voters

who are not registered to vote. I have included in Attachment E a list of the individuals who signed the

omissions list sheet but are not registered to vote. A number of caveats are in order. First of all, there is

a chance that these people were registered in 2008 but are no longer registered as of September 2010.

Second, if they voted a true provisional ballot, and the ballot was properly rejected because they were

not registered to vote in November 2008, then obviously no violation of the law occurred. My client

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brings this to your attention because there is some chance that neither safe harbor applies considering

the frequency which nonregistered voters (as of September 2010) appear on the 2008 omissions list.

I look forward to hearing from you regarding the issues that I have outlined. Please feel free to contact

me if you have any questions. My client is happy to discuss the data they have accumulated and answer

any questions that you may have about what they have discovered. They are committed to helping the

Department in its efforts to enforce the various statutes that safeguard the integrity of the electoral

process.

Sincerely,

J. Christian Adams

c.c. Russ Nobile