December 1, 2000

BRYAN, TX-- A group of Texas voters filed suit in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division Friday claiming that the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board in Florida was illegally constituted and therefore unauthorized to hold an election, and on that basis, all votes for the General Election of November 7, 2000 must be disallowed as void from that county.

Dennis Joyce, Vance Beaudreau and Henry Gresham, Texas voters acting independently, filed a Petition for a Writ of Mandamus in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division directed to the Florida Canvassing Commission headed by Secretary of State Katherine Harris claiming that their equal protection rights under the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States had been violated by the voting irregularities in Palm Beach County Florida which diminished the value of their votes in the General Election for President.

The petition points out that the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board was unlawfully constituted in violation of Florida Election Code §102.141 which requires replacement of any member of the county canvassing board who is an active participant in the campaign or candidacy of any candidate who has opposition in the election being canvassed. Not only is Carol Roberts one of the three members of that Board, but she actively supports Al Gore, she actually was a co-host for a fund raising effort for Democrat Bill Nelson for the U.S. Senate, a candidacy which was opposed by a Republican which made Carol Roberts ineligible to serve as a member of the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board. Carol Roberts clearly, by Florida law, was required to have been removed from the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board but she was not removed. Furthermore, she reportedly has had at least five affidavits filed against her by Republican poll watchers for alleged ballot counting violations favoring Gore, even bordering on ballot tampering.

If successful and the U.S. District Court grants the Writ of Mandamus, the result would be the invalidation of all votes from Palm Beach County. That would reduce the vote advantage Gore received over Bush in Florida by 116, 099 votes giving that much additional advantage to Bush which would be an extremely powerful public opinion statement that "it is over."

The reason given by the group of Texas voters who are known to be members of the Southern Party of Texas which is an affiliate of the Southern Independence Party nationwide for their efforts in this legal action to help the Bush campaign was as follows:

Although the Southern Party of Texas did not run any candidates for United States offices, it was determined late in the campaign that a Gore victory would likely be more detrimental to the ability for the Southern Independence movement to organize as needed throughout the South than would a Bush victory. Indeed, information was developed showing that George W. Bush may not be a strong enemy of the Confederate cause as he does support State’s Rights and is strongly Pro Life on the abortion question and has been supportive of the right to bear arms. With the Gore team in office the danger of martial law being invoked via executive orders was great which could have sharply curtailed our legal recruiting and organizing of Southern Independence Party organizations in all of the South. We considered this a strong enough danger for the legal action we took to assist, uninvited, the Bush Campaign. – Vance Beaudreau

To view Writ of Mandamus and attachments (printable pdf file)