Baptist Ministers Association of Houston * Houston Area Pastor

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A THEFT TO REPORT: VOTING RIGHTS OF
HOUSTON CITIZENS ARE THE VICTIM OF AN
ATTEMPTED SCHEME BY HOUSTON MAYOR AND
CITY ATTORNEY.
Baptist Ministers Association of Houston * Houston Area Pastor
Council * Houston Ministers Against Crime * AME Ministers
Alliance of Houston/Gulf Coast * Northeast Ministers Alliance *
South Texas Full Gospel Baptist Fellowship * South Texas District
of the Assemblies of God * National Hispanic Christian Leadership
Conference
The City Charter is very clear that only the City
Secretary has the authority and duty to validate
signatures on a referendum petition - and Anna
Russell did so. On August 1 confirming she in
fact had “checked” 19,177 signatures and
validated 17,826 of those (a 93% success rate),
then discontinued counting since the minimum
required signatures of 17,269 had been
exceeded.
We have confirmed as per the following email
from the office of the Texas Secretary of State
that “a judge” has the jurisdiction to make a
decision on the validity of a notarized
document. Therefore City Attorney David
Feldman has very questionable legal authority
to invalidate even one petition, let alone over
one half of the petitions submitted.
In addition, Mr. Feldman used illegitimate
standards to invalidate 11,245 signatures in
particular for “Illegible Circulator Name” and
“did not sign his/her name” (ALL is the latter
category were signed by either cursive, partial
cursive or print). Also in reference to the SOS
email, a circulator may sign…
The churches and citizens who worked tirelessly
to gather over 50,000 signatures in 30 days had
no choice but to file a legal challenge to such
an offense against our Constitutional rights.
The fact that the city, using our own tax dollars,
has engaged three of the largest law firms in
the city against its own citizens is adding insult
to injury.
Law Firms fighting the citizens Pro Bono*…?
• Haynes and Boone
• Susman Godfrey
• Fulbright & Jaworski
* - claimed by law firms; unable to verify due to city’s refusal
to respond to information request
These firms have now engaged in a “shock
and awe” against us by issuing frivolous
subpoenas to multiple citizen circulators
and five of our pastors with demand to
produce a burdensome level of
documentation irrelevant to the facts of
this case.
We ask that our city council members as
representatives of the people openly and
immediately demand answers to the
above issues from Mayor Annise Parker
and City Attorney David Feldman.
What other laws must this
administration ignore or
violate for council
members to speak out?
City Council contact info
is posted at:
www.nounequalrights.com
Baptist Ministers Association of Houston * Houston Area Pastor Council *
Houston Ministers Against Crime * AME Ministers Alliance of Houston/Gulf
Coast * Northeast Ministers Alliance * South Texas Full Gospel Baptist
Fellowship * South Texas District of the Assemblies of God * National
Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
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