Sledge Hammer Thrown At Wall Gets Mosquito (Maybe)

Greg Abbott: Texas voter suppression bill 'has absolutely nothing to do with the past presidential election' https://t.co/1m35H9cj9a

— Raw Story (@RawStory) May 23, 2021

But it does concern a case from 2014:

Federal prosecutors say a 47-year-old man provided cocaine to secure votes for school board candidates in South Texas.

A federal judge in McAllen on Monday scheduled the arraignment of Francisco "Frankie" Garcia of Donna for next month. He's facing voter fraud and other charges.

The Monitor newspaper reports that an indictment alleges Garcia paid voters by giving them a "dime bag" of cocaine. Others were paid $10 for their votes in the 2012 Donna school board elections.

FBI agents arrested Garcia last week in Illinois.

He's the latest to be implicated in a conspiracy to buy votes for the school board elections. Three women pleaded guilty earlier this year to voter fraud.

That's the one Gov. Absent actually cites to Bartiromo:

"They were using cocaine to buy votes," he said. "We're just trying to make sure we crack down on voter fraud like that." 

Except, of course, the Federal government did crack down on that kind of voter fraud.  Although I suspect it was a federal matter because he was arrested in Illinois, and there was the cocaine possession.  But it was last March, when Abbott railed against H.B. 1, that he really got ridiculous:

"And when you look at some of the things that they are talking about with regard to H.R. 1, they are trying to institutionalize voter fraud in the United States of America," he continued. "They want to make mail-in ballots permanent. Everyone knows -- including Democrats in Texas -- have said that one of the easiest ways to cheat in elections is through these mail-in ballots."

For people over 65 in Texas, mail-in ballots are "permanent."  Unless this bill in Texas changes that, but I don't think it does. The last time I filled out a mail in ballot I instructed the county clerk to send me such ballots for every election.  I guess since "old people=GOP voters," that's okay, though.

And who complained about the falsity of mail-in ballots, even as he used one in Florida?  And how many cases of voter fraud via mail-in ballots have occurred in Texas?  But yeah, this has nothing to do with the 2020 Presidential election. 

As Jonathan Swan asked Liz Cheney:

"What was the big problem in Georgia that needed to be solved by a new law? What was the big problem in Texas? What was the big problem in Florida?" Swan continued. "These laws are coming all around the states and, like, what are they solving for?"

The best the Governor can come up with is a school board election in 2014 where some votes were apparently purchased with cocaine.  No word on whether this actually swayed the expected outcome or changed the make up of the school board.   And having brought that up:

"I will never understand the resistance, for example, to voter ID," Cheney said. "There's a big difference between that and a president of the United States who loses an election after he tried to steal the election and refuses to concede."

She claimed that Americans needed efforts to ensure people who aren't supposed to vote don't vote. 

Which, again, doesn't seem to be a problem for mail-in ballots in Texas, as I'll never show any kind of ID again when I vote.  But then I'm old, and reliably 'conservative,' or something.  Whatever.  Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, and apparently asking for coherence on this subject is to insist on foolish consistency, or something.

I'll retire to Bedlam.  Things make more sense there.