Texas: Leo Vasquez

Did Harris County Tax Assessor, Leo Vasquez, know what kind of poo Paul Bettencourt left him in when he quit just days after his re-election? Obviously not.

Harris County Commissioners Court voted unanimously to accept a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the Texas Democratic Party against Paul Bettencourt's Voter Registration Office. Included in this settlement:

• The voter registrar must now comply with all Texas Election Code deadlines. In sworn discovery, Bettencourt's staff admitted that more than 11,350 timely submitted applications were not processed and on the voter rolls when voting started as required by law.

• The voter registrar's employees can no longer have employment or financial interests in outside companies that provide voter information to candidates or political parties, a practice Bettencourt allowed and Vasquez defended regarding moonlighting Republican political consultant Ed Johnson.

Now this is interesting. According to Lone Star Project, Ed Johnson, the deputy voter registrar of Leo Vasquez office, (Leo took over the office of Tax Assessor and Collector when Paul Bettencourt quit, much like Sarah Palin) is under fire again.
Last month, the Lone Star Project revealed that Harris County Associate Voter Registrar, Ed Johnson, is a paid employee of a GOP political consulting firm, Campaign Data Systems (CDS), owned by Republican State Representative Dwayne Bohac. On the firm’s website Bohac boasted that the CDS voter data file is enhanced by information culled from “driver license” records.

Well, Give the Harris County Tax Assessor credit for releasing some of the emails between Ed Johnson, assistant voter registrar and State Representative Dwayne Bohac concerning the voter registration data. It is clear something hot and heavy is going on between the two. The emails are very damning.

Take a look. This is a few from a conversation over a couple of days in July 2008:

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Subject: Almost ready
From: Ed Johnson
Date: July 14, 2008 16:53:35 PM CDT
To: Dwayne Bohac

Dwayne,
Data is ready. Have to merge the drivers license info and HCAD data. Then, create a report and download the data in your format.

The Lone Star Project continues to dig into the Assistant Voter Registrar, Ed Johnson, moonlighting as a gop consultant helping republicans win using the data that he manages. And the Harris County republican party is about as silent as Sarah Palin at a planned parenthood rally.
Further examination of documents obtained by the Lone Star Project show that Republican State Representative Dwayne Bohac (HD138 – Houston) sits at the center of the Harris County elections office scandal. The Harris County associate voter registrar was literally Bohac’s “man on the inside” in a position to assist Bohac in his own campaigns and the campaigns of his political clients.