Texas tampers with vote date - still fails

[merithyn]

Interesante....

Gawker Article

After a half-day filibuster that was controversially halted by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Republicans in the Texas Senate scrambled to quickly pass the equally controversial abortion bill SB5, but were halted themselves by two hours of motions and parliamentary inquiries from Democrats trying to run out the clock on Gov. Rick Perry's special session.

In the end, it all came down to a last-minute vote that could barely be heard over the din of cheers from pro-choice activists gathered in the gallery.

But where did that last minute fall — before or after the bill's midnight deadline?

Shortly after 10 PM CDT, Texas State Senator Wendy Davis, in hour 11 of her historic filibuster to prevent an anti-abortion bill from passing, The Associated Press and several other large media outlets initially reported that the bill had passed, taking Lt. Gov. Dewhurst's word that the vote was taken "just before" 12 AM.

But Democratic State Senators and the tens of thousands who witnessed the vote live on a YouTube stream were skeptical.

As well they should have been.

Screengrabs of the official SB5 results page captured by several wonks clearly show the record vote was called after midnight local time, and was therefore dated 6/26.



But seconds later the results page was suddenly taken down, and when it returned, the vote's date had miraculously been altered to make it seem as though it had been cast in time — on 6/25.



So what happened? Did someone tamper with official state documents? It would seem so, and that's a crime.

As Technology Policy Analyst Kathy Gill notes over at The Moderate Vote:

In my experience (I've done web work since 1993 or so), pages like this one are automatically generated from a database file. In other words, a person doesn't code the page.

In order to change something like this, someone has to change the database. And things like votes and official times, they're often (usually?) automatically generated also.

In other words, changes like this are deliberate.

Ultimately, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst conceded that the vote was three minutes too late, and SB5 was pronounced dead. But that doesn't mean it won't rise again. In fact, it almost certainly will. And when it does, will the same people still be watching to make sure the official voting record keeps

This came up on Facebook in a post by a guy from Canada named Karsten School. Here's his post:

Last night something very important happened down in Texas, something that if you weren't following as it happened, you're probably not going to hear the whole truth about. I was one of the people who was in the right place to watch, and so I'm now going to try to pass on the word as best I can. I'm tagging some of you at the bottom, people who I think should read this. Apologies for anyone who fi...nds this disruptive.

The Texas senate voted yesterday on an bill that essentially would have closed nearly every abortion clinic in the state. To try to counter the bill (which was heavily supported by the Republican majority, senator Wendy Davis attempted a one-woman day-long filibuster, during which time she spoke on the subject while going without food, water, bathroom breaks or being allowed to sit down or even lean on her table for support. She lasted nearly eleven hours before being ruled off topic on a technicality. A second female senator then stepped up and tried to continue the filibuster by asking for salient points to be repeated to her, as she missed part of the session that day to attend her father's funeral.

But here's where things get interesting. With fifteen minutes before the midnight deadline, the lieutenant governor ordered the senate to proceed, and actually had the democrats' microphones cut off. The spectators in the assembly responded by cheering, chanting and generally causing a ruckus, in order to drown out attempts at a vote. The midnight deadline passed without a vote being taken, but the chair held a vote after midnight, as the spectators were forced out of the assembly. During all of this, there was no coverage on MSNBC, CNN or any other major news network, with the only coverage coming from a livestream set up by the Teas Tribune.

At 12:15, the Associated Press ran a story saying the bill had passed, which CBS picked up. This was based on a sole source, which the AP later admitted was a republican senator. Meanwhile in the chambers, the senators stood around, both sides confused if the vote had even happened, if they had even voted on the correct issue. The chair had left with the lieutenant governor without ending the session. The Tribune's feed was cut at 12:20 with 70,000 people watching. CNN at this point was talking about the deliciousness of muffins.

Outside in the halls of the senate building, thousands of people were packed wall to wall, chanting "shame, shame", while thousands more were outside. State police had formed a barricade around the entrance hall, and were making sporadic arrests (50 or so by night's end) and confiscating cameras. In the thick of it was a guy named Christopher Dido, who used his cell phone and a live stream to report on what was happening. He was the only journalist in America who was filming at the senate, with as many as 30,000 people watching the stream at one time, and over 200,000 viewers by night's end. He did this while the state police surrounded the protesters in the building, some of them with nightsticks drawn. The police at this time refused to let through food or water that people tried to send in, instead eating and drinking it themselves. They also barricaded access to vending machines and water fountains within the building, and were said to have blocked off access to the washrooms for at least a period of time. Meanwhile, journalists still inside the chambers tweeted out news updates, which were disseminated and retweeted by people like Matt Fraction, Felicia Day and Will Wheaton, reaching an audience that would otherwise have probably not seen or heard what happened next.

The senate was recalled 90 minutes after its midnight end point, to determine whether or not the vote was valid- behind closed doors with no microphones, and only the Senate's own muted camera. Then something disturbing happened. The senate website carries the official record of the caucus. It listed the vote as happening past midnight, on June 26th. Until suddenly it didn't. The date was quietly manually changed to 6/25, the minutes altered to say the vote happened at 11:59, despite almost 200,000 people watching live who saw differently. Suddenly twitter and other social media sites blew up with before-and-after screen shots. Inside the closed sessions, the democrats were made aware of the alterations and brought them up- without social media, almost no one would have known, and never in time. Ultimately, based on the fraudulent alterations, the GOP conceded defeat, admitting the vote had taken place at 12:03, and declaring the bill to be dead. When this happened, the AP and CBS said the vote was overturned, never admitting to shoddy journalism. CNN ignored the story until this morning, because muffins take priority.

Yesterday, I witnessed women's rights under fire, a crippled legal system that didn't represent its people, a corrupt government body attempting to commit a crime in front of hundreds of thousands of witnesses, and the complete failure of the main stream media. I also witnessed a woman performing a nearly superhuman act to do what was right, the power of the people making themselves heard both in person and online, and the extraordinary value of one young man with a cellphone making sure people saw and heard the truth about what was going on.

Anyone reading the papers or watching network news today won't get the full story. Hopefully enough people saw it unfold live, that the lessons from last night won't be forgotten.

[Neil]

This is difficult to adjudicate.  On the one hand, the bill brings up some good points.  After all, you have to draw the limit as to what to abort somewhere, and it's not a bad idea to set high standards as to the sort of places that do them, seeing as it is a somewhat dangerous procedure, and you want to avoid the sort of nonsense like that guy in Philadelphia or whatever.  But at the same time, you know that the Republicans weren't concerned one iota with the safety of anyone.  The point was to close abortion clinics.  Truly two loathsome groups of people here.

[HVC]

They're already preparing another vote. The GOP will get their bill through. What are the odds of a democratic majority any time soon?

[11B4V]

Perry Calls Another Special Session on Abortion

(Newser) – Will Wendy Davis bust out her pink tennis shoes again? Texas Gov. Rick Perry has called another special legislative session beginning July 1 to put in place stringent new abortion restrictions statewide, reports the Dallas Morning News. Davis famously foiled him the first time around with a 12-plus-hour filibuster last night that helped run out the clock on the special session. (She got some late help from boisterous supporters after Republicans called her on a rules violation.)

No word yet on whether Democrat Davis plans another filibuster, but Perry vows that "we will not allow the breakdown of decorum and decency to prevent us from doing what the people of this state hired us to do." Abortion isn't the only topic on the agenda for the 30-day special session, but this time Perry plans to have it addressed immediately instead of waiting until the end. The tough new abortion rules would outlaw the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy and effectively shut down most of the state's clinics, reports AP.

[Neil]

Will their bill survive federal lawsuits?

[Fate]

They're already preparing another vote. The GOP will get their bill through. What are the odds of a democratic majority any time soon?

10-15 years away. Not anytime soon.

[Valmy]

Perry Calls Another Special Session on Abortion

(Newser) – Will Wendy Davis bust out her pink tennis shoes again? Texas Gov. Rick Perry has called another special legislative session beginning July 1 to put in place stringent new abortion restrictions statewide, reports the Dallas Morning News. Davis famously foiled him the first time around with a 12-plus-hour filibuster last night that helped run out the clock on the special session. (She got some late help from boisterous supporters after Republicans called her on a rules violation.)

No word yet on whether Democrat Davis plans another filibuster, but Perry vows that "we will not allow the breakdown of decorum and decency to prevent us from doing what the people of this state hired us to do." Abortion isn't the only topic on the agenda for the 30-day special session, but this time Perry plans to have it addressed immediately instead of waiting until the end. The tough new abortion rules would outlaw the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy and effectively shut down most of the state's clinics, reports AP.

Ah love having Mr. Corruption and Cronyism lecture people on decency.

[Admiral Yi]

Somebody has to.

[Valmy]

Somebody has to.

Well if somebody had managed that special session half-way competently maybe somebody wouldn't need to whine at the indecency.

[CountDeMoney]

As long as it's about guns, fetuses and Mexicans, Texans are happy.

[Admiral Yi]

Well if somebody had managed that special session half-way competently maybe somebody wouldn't need to whine at the indecency.

Whether that's true or not, screaming and hooting to prevent a vote is not something civilized people do.  It's a Bolshevik tactic.

[CountDeMoney]

Whether that's true or not, screaming and hooting to prevent a vote is not something civilized people do.  It's a Bolshevik tactic.

Yes, it's much more American to just slam it home in a special session, hoping no one's paying attention.

[Berkut]

Somebody has to.

The same guy who immediately then probably broke a law by forging his own legislators data?

Funny the things you choose to be outraged about, and the things you allow to pass without comment.

[Valmy]

Whether that's true or not, screaming and hooting to prevent a vote is not something civilized people do.  It's a Bolshevik tactic.

Yeah those protestors did not show up to be civilized.  What was idiotic is not knowing they would show up.

Bolshevik tactic? 

[Berkut]

Whether that's true or not, screaming and hooting to prevent a vote is not something civilized people do.  It's a Bolshevik tactic.

Yes, it's much more American to just slam it home in a special session, hoping no one's paying attention.

And if that doesn't work, just forge the results. Not a problem!

Hell, if you are willing to simply forge the results, why, you can get all kinds of great legislation passed!