LAWSUIT AGAINST TX SOS GOES TO COURT ON MONDAY!
March 28

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

Thanks to the amazing "watchdog" skills of Camille Perry, one of our longtime supporters, I was made aware that on this coming Monday, March 31, 2008, there will be a court proceeding (a trial?) having to do with a lawsuit filed nearly 2 years ago against the TX Secretary of State and the County Clerk of Travis County. Thank you, Camille!!

In June 2006, a lawsuit was filed against the TX Secretary of State (at that time), Roger Williams, and Travis County Clerk, Dana DeBeauvoir, in an attempt to stop the use of the Hart Intercivic e-Slate machines in Travis County. The plaintiffs are David Van Os (who was running for TX State Attorney General), Nelson Linder (pres. of NAACP of Austin), NAACP of Austin, and Sonia Santana. Jim Harrington, who heads the Texas Civil Rights Project, is the attorney representing the four plaintiffs. I have attached the original 15-page petition that was filed in June '08. I encourage everyone to read it if you want to become familiar with the various sections of the Texas Election Code and Texas State Constitution that have been violated by the SoS' approval of the Hart Intercivic e-Slate (as well as, the Hart e-Scan and the Diebold and ES&S DREs and scanner systems although they are not a part of this lawsuit) for use by Texas voters.

Other than a short proceeding before a visiting judge in July 2006 at which time an injunction against the use of the Hart machines in the November 2006 elections was denied, the trial has been repeatedly postponed over the past two years. Also, during this time, Dana was removed as a defendant in the case. How or why this happened, I have no clue, but am hoping to find this out from someone involved with the case and will pass the information on to the mailing list when I do.

Evidently, from what Camille was told by the court administrator today, the judge will hear arguments about the "merits of the case". This may mean that the case itself will not be tried starting Monday, but rather, only questioned if it should be allowed to proceed at all. (I am hoping that either Sonia or David will correct my feeble attempt to describe what will be occurring on Monday.)

The court proceeding will start at 9:00 am at the Travis County Courthouse located downtown at Guadalupe &10th. The courtroom will be posted at 8:30 am that morning on the bulletin board in the lobby of the building. Two days have been scheduled for whatever they will be doing.

Hopefully, more to come over the weekend.
Karen