Thursday, July 24, 2014

Update

Some quick notes from the True the Vote hearing.


1. It's going to be an all-day affair.
2. Mike Wallace destroyed the President of True the Vote on the stand.  Blame her lawyer, He did a really pitiful job of preparing her for the hearing.
3. She admitted on the stand that Gregg Phillips is a board member. That was interesting.
4. Judge Nancy Atlas. Can we trade three, any three federal judges in Mississippi for her?
5. I think she will rule against True the Vote.  Judge Atlas asked the True the Vote president (sorry, cannot remember her name) how the issues involving crossover votes, poll books, and absentee ballot applications could be reconciled with the National Voter Registration Act, which is concerned only with voter eligibility.   True the Vote gave a feeble answer that knowing someone voted absentee could be used to check voter eligibility on election day.

Post will be written later today as I head back to the courtroom.  You are in for a treat as JJ and WLBT commissioned a sketch artist to provide several drawings of the hearing. 

Posted by Kingfish at 2:37 PM

14 comments:

Jane said...

Mike Wallace is formidable.

July 24, 2014 at 2:56 PM
Anonymous said...

True the Vote is an offshoot of a Tea Party movement from Texas. These people are frightening to look at and to listen to. They are mercenaries who will stop at nothing to get their way on their terms. Think Nazi zealots.

July 24, 2014 at 2:58 PM
Anonymous said...

Mike Wallace is a MACHINE! I wish I could see him go after it in action. Get some sanctions and make sure these people use a little more discretion next time.

July 24, 2014 at 2:59 PM
Anonymous said...

BTW, who is Gregg Phillips? Been keeping up, haven't heard that name.

July 24, 2014 at 3:42 PM
Anonymous said...

3:42 google search burnt orange

July 24, 2014 at 4:51 PM
John Pittman Hey said...

What is the significance of "admitting" that Gregg Phillips is on the TTV board? He's been tweeting about TTV for weeks now. I didn't know it was a secret.

July 24, 2014 at 4:53 PM
Anonymous said...

3:42 here

That is interesting. JPH, it's interesting to me because most of us didn't know his past, which is sketchy.

This lawsuit has smelled like a fundraiser from the get-go with the added benefit of exposure, which has been raised in court, and seeing this guy involved kind of adds to that, don't you think? So yeah, it's interesting.

July 24, 2014 at 5:26 PM
Anonymous said...

Re Gregg Phillips

Exclusive: State privatization champion gets contract to help clear up welfare mess

By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News rtgarrett@dallasnews.com
Published: 13 March 2010 11:59 AM
Updated: 26 November 2010 03:03 PM

AUSTIN - A former state official who played a major role in the state's biggest privatization fiasco is now making money trying to help Texas fix the problems that resulted.

Gregg Phillips was the state's No. 2 social services official several years ago, and he led a push to hire a private company to evaluate applications for public assistance.
Now his Austin-based company, AutoGov Inc., has received $207,500 since November to help the state eliminate errors in decidingg whether an applicant gets food stamps or other aid and how much recipients get. AutoGov was hired without other companies having a chance to bid for the work.
.
.
.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/state-politics/20100313-Exclusive-State-privatization-champion-gets-1424.ece

July 24, 2014 at 5:32 PM
Anonymous said...

Gregg Phillips
"conservative voice and big data innovator" (Teabagger/Grifter)

Austin, Texas

Chairman and CEO, AutoGov

Managing Director, Winning Our Future PAC

Founder of The Voters Trust

BFF & Confidante of "award-winning journalist", Chuck C. Johnson

July 24, 2014 at 5:45 PM
Anonymous said...

John Pittman Hey, I noticed you said on Twitter that "True the Vote lawsuit oughta not mentioned cross-over voting as it's target - b/c you don't really need DOB to catch that."

If you don't need dates of birth to catch cross-over voting then what's the point of this lawsuit? The McDaniel allegations are about cross-over voting.

July 24, 2014 at 6:02 PM
John Pittman Hey said...

Gregg Phillips was a state official under the Fordice administration in the 1990s. He was in the news a lot back then.

July 24, 2014 at 8:26 PM
Anonymous said...

Gregg Phillips was involved in the Maximus privatization fiasco in MS during the Fordice administration. It was either DHS or Medicaid services. I heard at the time that PEER told him he would not be prosecuted for his role if he left the state for good.

July 24, 2014 at 8:59 PM
Anonymous said...

I hope it wasn't dhs, because if so, history is about to repeat itself, dhs is privatizing child support and child support collections. It was a fiasco last time with the state losing money so Young Williams could make a bunch iof money. Now they are going to do it again so that Young Williams can make a bunch of money. And all the dhs attorneys are going to lose their jobs. They are already the lowest paid state attorneys ($30k after taxes) with the highest turn over rate. Way to poke them in the eye. Thanks legislature.

July 24, 2014 at 10:55 PM
Anonymous said...

10:55 pm
Not to steer things off subject but out of curiosity, I looked info this DHS thing today. The statute that sets DHS attorney pay (43-19-47) basically says that every year, the personnel board "shall" survey the salaries of attorneys at the AG's office each year and "shall raise the start step of the staff and senior attorneys accordingly and the minimum shall never go below [$40k] for staff attorneys and [$50k] for senior attorneys."

So of course no review is conducted and the salary remains at the statutory minimum. Apparently, there have been several lawsuits over the years but they are thrown out on grounds of standing and sovereign immunity. There is actually an appeal pending before the Miss. Supreme Court now: 2014-0007

July 25, 2014 at 1:05 PM

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