Alarming video reveals details of discriminatory poll watcher program in Harris County

Video emerges as legislature debates massive expansion of poll watcher powers

The video below is an excerpt of the full Harris County Republican Party’s “Election Integrity Brigade” launch video. We added expository text in red to clarify what the presenter is pointing at. No other edits were made and full video is available at the bottom of this post.

As Texas lawmakers rush to pass anti-voting legislation like Senate Bill 7 and House Bill 6 that will grant far-reaching powers to partisan poll watchers while making it harder to vote, a video obtained by Common Cause Texas reveals the Harris County Republican Party (HCRP) is already mobilizing an “Election Integrity Brigade” to “build an army of 10,000 people” to serve as poll watchers and election workers who will have the “confidence and courage” to go into some of Houston’s most diverse, historically Black and brown neighborhoods to stop alleged voter fraud.

“What we see in this video is a concrete, real-world example of why it is a downright dangerous idea to expand poll watcher powers while removing the ability of election workers to kick a disruptive poll watcher out,” said Anthony Gutierrez, Executive Director of Common Cause Texas. “Volunteer poll watchers who have no ill intent and who do not plan to disrupt voting would have no need to be ‘courageous’ about going into predominantly Black and Brown communities. When I hear someone say he needs ‘courageous’ volunteers to be part of an ‘army’ that will keep an eye on voters in minority neighborhoods, I hear all the same old dog whistles with a slightly updated harmony.”  

Senate Bill 7 will grant partisan poll watchers the exclusive power to film, record and photograph voters inside polling locations. Senate Bill 7 specifies that those photos or videos would be intended to be shared only with the Secretary of State but there is no enforcement mechanism in the bill to ensure those videos would not be shared on social media nor are there punishments if a poll watcher does exactly that. 

“Giving partisan poll watchers the exclusive power to surveil voters and election workers and then secretly submit video and photos to the Secretary of State and Attorney General is an evolved tactic that has its roots in the Jim Crow Era. It should be a cause for alarm for anyone who cares about racial justice, privacy, and whether we want the state government encouraging partisan actors to spy on their fellow Texans while they try to cast their ballot,” added Gutierrez. 

In 2010, poll watchers with ties to True the Vote were found to be intimidating voters in predominantly Black communities in Houston. The intimidation took the form of poll watchers getting far too close to voters, attempting to look over their shoulders as they tried to fill out their ballot. The Harris County Attorney had to step in and establish protocols with clear guidelines on where the watchers could and could not go inside poll sites, including how close they could stand to voters casting their ballots.House Bill 6, the House counterpart to Senate Bill 7, would prevent the presiding judge from removing a disruptive poll watcher from a poll site, except under limited circumstances which are poorly defined. This practice of a poll watcher getting too close to voters as they fill out their ballot does not fall clearly within those circumstances. 

“There have been documented instances of poll watchers disrupting poll sites and intimidating voters by doing things like standing too close to voters. If these bills become law, those poll watchers could now stand too close to a voter receiving assistance while they record video on their phone, and an election judge would not be able to kick them out,” added Gutierrez. “These proposals would weaponize poll watchers and empower them to disrupt and delay voting at any poll site in Texas.” 

Senate Bill 7 has been voted out of the Senate and will next be heard in the House Elections Committee. House Bill 6 remains pending in the House Elections Committee. 

“It’s a new whistle but the tune is the same. The myth of voter fraud is frequently used to target the communities of color to delegitimize their vote and silence the voice of a rising electorate that simply wants to claim their rightful place in our democracy. It has to stop,” said Anthony Gutierrez. 

Watch the full video here:

Additional Background: 
Common Cause Texas has identified several concerns about the brigade’s efforts, as presented in the video, including: 

Brigade Focus Appears to be on Houston’s Urban Neighborhoods and Communities of Color: In the video, the presenter explains that there is little need to have poll watchers in Republican, suburban areas of Harris County. The presenter suggests that voter fraud occurs in certain areas and talks about the need for courageous people to leave the suburbs to go “where the fraud is occurring.” Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, ahistoric Black church that hosted Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s first visit to Houston in 1963 and serves as an epicenter for civil rights struggles in Houston, is used as an example of a polling location that people might be asked to cover.
While displaying a precinct map of Harris County, the presenter circles and points mostly to urban neighborhoods that are predominantly Black and Brown and states, “We’ve got to get folks in these suburbs out here that have a lot of Republican folks that got to have the courage— if we don’t do that, this fraud down in here is really going to continue.”
Coordination with True the Vote: The Texas-based organization, True the Vote, is mentioned throughout the presentation. One participant discusses True the Vote’s efforts in Georgia, including citizen challenges and the launch of a new “election integrity” effort.
True the Vote launched a poll watcher program in Harris County in 2010 and multiple reports were received of poll watchersintimidating voters andtargeting Black and Brown neighborhoods. The group was also accused of using divisive conspiracy theories about voter fraud to mobilize poll watchers. Representatives of the organization have previously said their goal is to make the experience of voting “like driving and seeing the police following you.” Most recently, the organization was part of a failed multi-state effort to overturn the legitimate results of the presidential election. 

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