America – and Texas – are at a crossroads. It is YOUR time for choosing…
Strong civility, respect for the rule of law or The ANGRY MOB Innocent until proven guilty or Conviction by Accusation Protect human life or Support Planned Parenthood Ban & punish sanctuary cities or Continue dangerous lawlessness Religious freedom or Anti-Christian bigotry Economic freedom or Over-regulating big government More tax cuts or Punishing tax hikes promised by Democrats Border security/America first or Wide-open borders/cheap labor Second Amendment gun rights or Disarming legal gun owners Back President Trump or Help unhinged Democrats impeach him
Grassroots America has endorsed all Republicans EXCEPT the poorest job performance incumbents. If they could not earn our endorsement or recommendation in the Primary, they do not qualify now. We won’t change our standards. We don’t believe in using “elastic” definitions. We reserve the right to protect our hard-earned credibility by simply not endorsing in some races. This is WHY Primary Elections are so important. Voters have a chance to remove bad performers then. Now, each voter must decide for themselves, but our “home” Smith County voter guide can be found here.
Smith County Early Voting Dates & Times Monday – Friday: 10/22 – 10/26/2018 from 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM Saturday: 10/27/2018 from 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM Sunday: 10/28/2018 from 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM Monday – Friday: 10/29 – 11/02/2018 from 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Vote at any of these Smith County Early Voting Locations The HUB: 304 E Ferguson St., Tyler Heritage Building: 1900 Bellwood Rd., Tyler Lindale Public Library: 200 E Hubbard St., Lindale Noonday Community Center: 16662 CR 196 (behind Blue Store Hwy 155) Whitehouse Municipal Court: 311 E Main St., Whitehouse
If you wake up to bad outcomes for the November General Election, and you complain to Grassroots America, and we don’t see your name on the voter list, guess how much your complaint registers? Not. One. Teeny. Bit.
Be responsible. Honor our Founders. Honor our Veterans. Fight for Texas & our Nation! Vote!
On September 12th, we sent you a Call to Action email outlining efforts by Rep. Biedermann and other elected officials to stop Land Commissioner George P. Bush’s plan to re-imagine the Alamo and move the Cenotaph to a so called “Free Speech Zone,” leaving this sacred memorial unprotected from vandalism and destruction.
Today, those same elected officials stood on the hallowed grounds of the Alamo, in front of the Cenotaph, to hold a press conference. They called on Commissioner Bush to stop his unilateral actions and bring the future of the Alamo to the Texas Legislature during the upcoming 86th Session. We agree with Rep. Biedermann that the legislature is the proper place for the future of the most sacred shrine in Texas history to be debated. The Cradle of Texas Independence must be forever protected for generations of freedom-loving Texans and for those who seek to know our history. We do not want the Alamo’s history to be destroyed by multi-cultural quests for political correctness.
We appreciate the feedback you have given us concerning your calls and emails to the General Land Office. It is breathtaking the lengths they will go to try to fool the people.
State Rep. Biedermann Says ‘No’ To Long Term Lease With City of San Antonio for Alamo Property San Antonio, TX (09/14/18) — Representative Kyle Biedermann (R- Fredericksburg) stood in the shadow of The Alamo on Friday morning to urge officials to include Texas Legislature in the negotiations going forward on The Alamo Master Plan.
The current Alamo Plan will move the Cenotaph into the ‘Free Speech Area’ where it cannot be protected and will be open to protest and disrespect. Even more startling, the Plan would include a long term lease agreement with the City of San Antonio giving the city the ‘ability to monitor compliance’ and the requirement in that lease that the GLO must prioritize ‘the World Heritage Site nomination and designation’ of United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
State Representative Kyle Biedermann said, “I believe it is imperative for Commissioner Bush to include the Texas Legislature in the process going forward with respect to the Alamo Master Plan in order to ensure Texas sovereignty over the future of the Alamo. Much concern has been voiced by legislators about moving the Cenotaph and the long term lease agreement with the City of San Antonio giving them the ‘ability to monitor compliance’ and the requirement in that lease that the GLO must prioritize ‘the World Heritage Site nomination and designation’ of UNESCO. As Texans, we should not allow an international body to impose on our most sacred of sites. Texas has a proud independent history and we must never allow international actors to revise or sanitize our history.
Texas State Senator Donna Campbell said. “Thousands of Texans have contacted my office expressing their feedback over the new Alamo Master Plan. Chief among these concerns is the overwhelming desire to see the Spirit of Sacrifice, also known as the Alamo Cenotaph, restored and preserved in its current location. The Alamo is one of our state’s greatest treasures and to this day it still represents the origins of what it means to be a Texan. It belongs to all of us, and it unites all of us. In putting together the Alamo Master Plan, public input was sought and the majority of that input has asked for special consideration to be given to the Cenotaph and that it not be relocated.”
Former Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said, “Ignoring key elements of public input erodes public confidence. Entering into an agreement that could diminish State of Texas control over the Alamo destroys public confidence.”
‘El Conservador’ conservative blogger and writer George Rodriguez said. “I stand here supporting Rep. Biedermann because I feel he is the last ‘wall’ to save the Alamo property from a lease that may allow changes to the site and even history of the Alamo. We must understand that this is a shrine of Texas history and it should be treated with care and reverence. We cannot and must not rush into any agreements with anyone unless they are carefully studied and reviewed.”
The following message is from Aaron Harris, Executive Director, Direct Action Texas:
On August 16th, Direct Action Texas and Grassroots America held a joint press conference in which we announced a Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition letter to Gov. Abbott asking him to direct the Secretary of State to begin verifying the citizenship of registered voters in Texas.
We asked the Governor to do this because 1) the Texas Secretary of State is appointed by the Governor, 2) the Governor has the constitutional executive authority to mandate citizenship verification of registered voters, and 3) Governor Abbott has strongly supported Coalition efforts to pass election integrity and ballot security reforms. In fact, upon signing Senate Bill 5 (increased penalties for people who commit election crimes related to mail-in ballots), Governor Abbott issued a statement declaring, “It is a primary function of government to protect citizens’ right to vote, and I will not allow the integrity of the ballot box to be compromised in Texas.”
In the press conference, I released figures that have understandably garnered quite a bit of attention and caused heartburn for some government officials. Many questions are circling; I’m going to address several of those now. Some will be better answered at a future time and place, after we’ve completed necessary follow-up work.
We can agree that government suffers from a disease of inaction. Even with the best of intentions, important projects simply die in government, especially those that are political hot potatoes – like election integrity. This is simply a political reality.
For nearly a year, the Texas Attorney General has had information about the problems with Texas’ voter rolls, and this project has simply stalled. In January, in discussions with multiple senior level staffers in the AG’s office, I predicted they would get nowhere by mid-year in 2018 and promised that – if they did nothing – I would go public in July or August. As I had originally feared, the project has stalled. Last week I followed through on my promise to release the information.
It is important for us to remember that we aren’t talking about stalling on a minor issue. Since my discussions with high level Texas AG staffers about non-citizens being registered to vote in Texas, the March 2018 Primary Election happened. The May 22 Primary runoff election happened, and the May 2018 local municipal, school board, and bond elections took place, not to mention other local runoffs and special elections. Now, in just a few months, we’ll have the November 2018 General Election. How does this not rise to the level of a priority as election after election goes by?
In 2017, government analysts compared Texas’ voter rolls against the Department of Public Safety (DPS) database. Most Texans don’t realize the Secretary of State (SoS) checks the DPS database every time they register a voter. This is done in accordance with federal statute.
They verify the applicant’s name, address, and date of birth. DPS has citizenship information, but the SoS does NOT verify that status, even though it is illegal for non-citizens to vote!
In checking the voter rolls against the DPS citizenship status, the analysts found 280,000 registered voters who – at the time they were issued a DPS ID – were not citizens. Again, non-citizens are illegible to register and to vote.
Some of these were registered to vote when they got their ID (motor voter), and some were registered to vote at a later date. Some of these likely became naturalized citizens since they obtained their DPS ID, but surely not all of them. The fact is – we simply do not know.
Texans deserve to know.
There are over 21.5 million DPS-issued IDs in Texas. There are 14 million registered voters.Of the 14 million registered voters, more than 4 million of them do not match up to anyone in DPS’s database or other databases available to the analysts.
We’ve spoken with several conservative legislators the last couple of days. We are incensed that NONE of the independent gun rights groups were invited to the Abbott table and that our conservative legislators were shut out of the conversation too.When gun control advocates leave the Governor’s meeting high-fiving each other, you know there’s a reason for concern.
In short order, we will plan a Coalition effort with conservative legislators to stand against erosion of gun rights and to support laws already on the books that are not being enforced. We support school safety, but we do not support criminalizing lawful gun-owners in the process.
The following is our initial read on Governor Abbott’s May 30, 2018 School and Firearm Safety Action Plan:
1) His proposal creates a de facto mandatory storage law and makes every gun owner a potential felon.
2) His proposal makes it a potential felony to store a gun in your automobile.
3) His proposal will make it a potential felony to make firearms accessible to you or your properly-trained teenagers in the case of an emergency.
4) His proposal effectively outlaws unsupervised shooting by anyone under the age of 18, regardless of training or ability.
We are also concerned with potential “red flag” laws that could target gun owners on an anonymous tip, allowing judges to temporarily seize an individual’s firearms if that person is considered an imminent threat. If a citizen speaks against a tax increase or a bond election, would local officials consider that citizen an imminent threat? What about citizens who hold prayer vigils outside abortion clinics or groups who hold Tax Day rallies? Oh, yes indeed, some officials would call that an imminent threat in a heartbeat!
Other language in the plan approaches criminalization of gun owners if they fail to report a missing firearm in a specified government- mandated time frame.
We will oppose any legislation that makes it harder for citizens to use their firearms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense.
Stay tuned. Our right to self-defense PRE-DATES the Second Amendment. It is a God-given right – not a right bestowed by the government. We intend to fight to preserve it. What about you?
I’m excited to share some good news with all of our Grassroots America members and supporters and to say to my colleagues in the Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition, “Well done!”
On July 17 as we were about to start the legislature’s special session, the Coalition sent a powerful letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton thanking him for efforts he had made to stand against voter fraud and asking him to look into issues regarding the constitutionality of voting machines in use in Texas. [See the Coalition letter here.]
The Texas Constitution is very clear. Article VI, Sec. 4 reads: “in all elections by the people, the vote shall be by ballot, and the Legislature shall provide for the numbering of tickets and make such other regulations as may be necessary to detect and punish fraud and preserve the purity of the ballot box.” This simply means that every ballot must be numbered.
The problem? Some voting machines currently in use in Texas, and new ones available for sale (using our tax dollars), specifically DRE machines, DO NOT number ballots. In fact, many simply are not capable of sequentially numbered paper trail back ups, but rather only “cast vote records”.
Election integrity and ballot security are not trite political matters. We simply must stand against operatives in both the Democratic and Republican parties and vendors who may try to stand in the way of cleaning up this big voter fraud mess in Texas.
After what happened during the regular session, it is clear that we have Republican obstructionists in the legislature who will do whatever it takes to thwart election integrity reforms. So, for the operatives and shills for the vendors who read this, let mebe clear. There will be no compromise and no acceptance of excuses for a situation in which the Secretary of State’s Office seemingly has rogue employees who can just ignore the state constitution and all controlling legal authorities.
Since I’m not used to asking permission to do the right thing, there will be NO retreat. Period. It matters not to me if folks post tacky little remarks on social media and get all spun up about the issues being raised by the two folks I consider to be subject matter experts on ballot security and election integrity. In fact, the more push back we get, the more determined we are!
Aaron Harris, Executive Director of Direct Action Texas, worked his heart out during the special session to get improvements in mail-in ballot security. He was successful. Aaron has four criminal cases on voter fraud, and this bulldog is just getting warmed up.
Dr. Laura Pressley, Save our Texas Vote, continues to tear up and down the highways of Texas, speaking to any group that will listen about the deficiencies in our election processes and the lack of transparency and accountability in how elections are carried out. She has bled for this and deserves respect.
As a result of the Coalition’s letter to General Paxton, we had a meeting with the AG’s Office in August. I am confident the Attorney General understands our concerns and has reviewed all of the evidence brought forward.
Now, Laura has some great news. Please share this with your friends and organizations.
