Letters to the editor: Rent-a-voter strategy draws criticism
From COURIER of MONTGOMERY COUNTY Posted: Saturday, October 31, 2015 8:44 pm
To the editor:
Temporary voters fuel a billion-dollar scandal. Some people will do anything for money. A company can provide voters and money to push through a billion-dollar bond to fund water and sewage for a housing development at the expense of every man, woman and child in Montgomery County.
The developer doesn’t want to pay to set up the MUD himself with his investors, so they invent the scheme described in the Oct. 18 Courier.
This is the same type of racket that set up The Woodlands Road Utility District, where four people were unjustly convicted of a crime they didn’t commit, for meticulously following the law. These MUD voters are admittedly temporary and have no intention of keeping their registration at these locations after the election, leaving the people of Montgomery County ultimately responsible for the debt.
If the MUD later failed, they were quick to prosecute The Woodland RUD voters even though they followed the law.
What kind of craven political hack would allow this kind of selective prosecution of innocent people who were trying to alert the citizens about this corruption with millions of tax dollars at stake with only a handful of voters having a say about how it is spent. It is high time that the people stand up and take notice of who are running all MUDs, road districts or any other kind of political entity whose board of directors can take your money and do what they want with it. If we don’t get control of local government, we will never be able to take our country back and we will continue to be ruled by those who want to farm our incomes and keep taking what they think they can get away with and destroy anyone who gets in their way. I challenge our district attorney to fully investigate those who orchestrated this billion-dollar scheme.
Jim Doyle
To the editor:
Montgomery County’s double standards for enforcing election laws are confusing at best. Have you read about the new rent-a-voter system?
This election season, we have three utility districts that have hired, yes hired, a private company to ensure their million-dollar bonds are approved by the “voters.” The voters in this case are a few employees set up in temporary mobile homes and in one case a shed. They will cast a vote for local debt to be hung around the neck of future home buyers. They are being compensated with cheap rent and voter registration services as offered on their employer’s website. They are not even operating in the shadows. Neither are the local municipalities supporting this fiasco.
Remember in 2014 when a Montgomery County man was sentenced to three years in prison and charged a $10,000 fine for having an alleged “temporary voting residence.” He cast a single vote in a utility district election. He was not offered cheap rent or any other pecuniary gain or benefit. He even changed his address himself. No service was offered to influence his vote. He merely wanted to effect responsible governance and fiscal restraint in his community. He wasn’t alone; there were others with the same good intentions that got crossways with the law. They were under the impression that an American republic offered taxation with representation and justice for all.
Instead, they found vindictive corruption and selective prosecution.
Maybe the Montgomery County residents who were convicted of voter fraud for their residence being considered too temporary could set up a similar election service. Apparently, as long as they offer services to developers and local governments, the other cheek will be turned. They could call themselves Rent-A-Voter.
Kelli Cook
