ustxtxb_obs_1982_10_15_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

Austin stin s Sept. 11 “renegade re erenclum to use News eek’s label, gave overwhelming approval to a nuclear weapons freeze by avote of 14,060 to 3,451 with all 109 precincts reporting. The unofficial referendum organized by the Nu clear Weapons Freeze Campaign involved 600 volunteers who staf ed polling tables at each of the city’s 109 voting locations. Coordination of that many people at that many places at one time came off with barely a hitch. The citizen-sponsored election, perhaps the largest ever conducted in this country, came about after Austin’s Nuclear Weapons Freeze ”.Campaign was denied a citizens’ initiative vote by the city attorney on:the ground that the issue did not affect the city proper. Tony Switzer, who organized the cam paign, put together a steering committee which organized captains for each voting precinct, recruited volunteers, and raised some $10,000 through garage sales, benefits, and two direct mail. .e forts. This marks the firsV, city, county, and ferenda to be held’ bete and the end of Novembet, ous parts of the country. O of the voters in America the opportunity to vote, clear freeze this “Our first goal a lon to c onvinceile , The Austin nuclear wea freeze gToup now plans to ur city council to pass a freeze r ,\\, tion and to declare a Weapons Freeze Week. the e e’ e; member Nina Butts s ven’t been in e*:’ since the electioilt feeling he’ll be fact that 1400 peoP 1’4; went to the trouble to vote of the freeze.” \(Cong. Pic 49″ against a nuclear freeze w b issue came before CongreSSea’t Dean’s List an Attempt To Intimidate Sec. of State David Dean’s ill-fated attempt to purge state voter roles of ineligible felons seems to have backfired on his boss the governor. Dean, a doggedly partisan sec. of state, has had to recall his list of suspected felons after one of those named, Jerry Angerman, a Democratic candidate for state representative, filed suit in federal court in Austin. Although his name was on Dean’s list, Angerman has never been charged with or convicted of a felony offense. Angerman says he still plans to sue Dean for libel and slander. State Rep. Rene Oliveira of Brownsville has also sued Dean, charging that Dean’s distribution of an inaccurate list of convicted felons could result in voters being wrongfully stricken from voter registration rolls. The lawsuit was filed in Brownsville on behalf of two anonymous persons who Oliveira said were incorrectly named as felons on Dean’s list. Oliveira said minority and low-income voters were particularly harmed by the circulation of the list. “It smacks of the old days when you had to pay a poll tax. All tactics like that result in fewer minority voters at the polls,” he said. The list, which contains 28,000 names, was prepared by comparing Department of Public Safety arrest records with the state voter list. The DPS list, however, also contained the names of persons who had been charged only with misdemeanors, which would not affect their voting rights. DPS spokesman said they had informed Dean’s staff the list also contained those minor offenses, but Dean insisted he didn’t know that until after the list was sent to the county tax assessor-collectors. Gov . Clements said he approved of what Dean was trying to do and blamed a lack of communication on the part of the DPS. Texas Civil Liberties Director John Duncan released the following statement: “Secretary of State David Dean’s action in sending a list of 40,000 possible ex-felons to county voter registrars and Republican and Democratic county chairmen is a textbook example of why state agencies should never be allowed to interface their computers. “The scandalous, irresponsible, and insensitive behavior of the Texas Department of Public Safety and the secretary of state’s office in taking incomplete and sometimes inaccurate criminal history records and attempting to match this information with voter registration lists smacks of a politically motivated attempt to intimidate anyone who has ever been arrested into foregoing the right to vote. “Some persons appearing on the lists have been convicted of felonies but have had their civil rights restored and are entitled to vote. “Some successfully completed a deferred adjudication felony probation and thus are entitled to vote. “Some have been convicted of minor misdemeanors years ago and were never legally disenfranchised. “Some were only charged with misdemeanors but never convicted. “The idea of confronting and embarrassing these people at the polls is unconscionable, and this is in effect what Secretary of State Dean is asking Republican and Democratic county leaders to do. We hope that no political party will undertake a program of providing goon squad monitors at the polls to intimidate potential voters. To do so may entail considerable personal liability given the lack of accuracy in the lists that Dean has circulated. “To encourage voter registrars to purge 40,000 people two weeks before the voter lists close for the fall general election is an unprecedented act of bad faith from the state official who is charged with the constitutiona responsibility of protecting everyone’s right to vote. “This exercise in big brotherism only underscores the need to change Texas law so that when a person discharges a sentence and has paid his or her debt to society an environment is created which is least likely to promote recidivism. Allowing and encouraging people to participate in the political process goes a long way in that direction. Dean’s program seems to go the other way.” THE TEXAS OBSERVER