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Houston Poll Watcher Says NAACP ‘Ringleader’ Was Accused of Touching Voting Machine

Nov. 4, 2012 9:13pm Madeleine Morgenstern

The poll watcher who said individuals in NAACP T-shirts took over a Houston polling site told TheBlaze Sunday that the “ringleader” of the group was also accused of touching an electronic voting machine that a voter was using.

Eve Rockford said the woman in the NAACP attire first screamed at the poll supervisor and demanded that a clerk be removed during the Friday incident.

“She starts screaming at [poll supervisor Rose Cochran] and she says ‘get this clerk out of here, get him out of here I’ve had enough of him,” Rockford, 51, told TheBlaze. “He starts calmly, using his voice, ‘she’s touching the machines, she’s touching the machines, she’s not acting appropriately, she’s touching the machines.’”

Rockford said Cochran did nothing about the outburst and that another poll watcher came up and asked the woman for her name. The woman demanded to know the poll watcher’s name instead and after a few moments left the voting machine area and went and sat down.

Rockford said the woman had been escorting voters up to the machines to vote, but said she didn’t actually see herself whether the woman had touched a machine.

“It was like she was moving these people to the machines, you have to go up and put your finger on it and dial the machine,” Rockford said. “[The clerk] was trying to say she was getting too close to the machine…that she was actually helping them cast their ballot.”

A representative from the NAACP’s Houston branch could not be reached for comment Sunday.

As TheBlaze previously reported, Rockford said the three people wearing NAACP attire showed up at the polling site and were handing out water to people in line, then “stirred up the crowd” and mentioned flying people out to Ohio to promote President Barack Obama.

“The NAACP basically ran this poll location and the judges did nothing about it,” Rockford said in her report of the incident.

Assistant Harris County Attorney Douglas Ray told the Houston Chronicle that Rockford’s account was wrong.

“It wasn’t like they were taking control of the place. It wasn’t like we did nothing about it. That’s just not true at all,” Ray told the newspaper. “What the NAACP people were doing was trying to identify people with disabilities and move them to the front of line so they could vote right away out of turn. … Our folks were basically saying, ‘We’re not working it that way.’ The activists became very confrontational. We had to calm them down and explain how the thing was supposed to work.”

Rockford was volunteering as a poll watcher on behalf of judicial candidate Don Self but was trained by True the Vote, a nonpartisan election integrity group. True the Vote spokesman Logan Churchwell told TheBlaze that poll watchers like Rockford are crucial in exposing potential fraud and that the incident has been reported to Harris County officials.

“None of this would have made news of any kind had we not had poll watchers in the first place,” Churchwell said. “This is exactly what they’re there for.”

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Comments (82)

VoteRightDammit
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 1:01am
Where is the neutron bomb when we most need it ????????????????

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- turkey13
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 11:38am
  Come on folks, if you had a very low IQ wouldn’t you appreciate some help. Without help you might turn in a blank ballot and then the folks up front might change your blank ballot to fit their needs.
  
  Report this comment
tedomatic
Posted on November 5, 2012 at 12:44am
Regardless of what they were doing inside, it is against the law to electioneer, campaign, or advocate within 100 feet of a polling place. This is Federal law, and the NAACP broke it, as did Rose Cochran by allowing it. Douglas Ray is also breaking it by failing to act.

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- loriann12
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 6:35am
  Moving people with disabilities forward? does that mean they could spot a welfare recipient 100 ft away? I got news for the NAACP: my handicapped son wants Ryan/Romney for president. I keep telling him it’s Romney/Ryan, but oh well.
  
  Report this comment
- G-WHIZ
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 11:11am
  It’sa NAA-L-CP! Nuff said!!
  
  Report this comment
jwmedina
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 11:41pm
Honestly, what is the difference between the NAACP and the KKK? They’re both racial supremacists.

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- Jimmmy
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 11:49pm
  Yes but if you think about it they can’t both be right can they?
  
  Report this comment
- Kenszen
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 12:49am
  @Jimmmy True that, but they CAN be both WRONG. Which they are.
  
  Report this comment
- 666Sucks
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 6:51am
  Nothing!
  
  Report this comment
- Sine labore nihil
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 11:44am
  They are both wrong, but why is it ok to be NAACP cloths around and our President supports them, hell its his base. And they call Conservatives racists. Correct me if I am wrong but wernt both groups started by Democrats? Again they call Conservatives racists???
  
  Report this comment
- Grillmark55
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 3:13pm
  But according to the media, the KKK is racist and the NAACP is just helping people be equal (or MORE equal as the case may be). All in the eye of the beholder, but you are right; racism is racism, no matter what the skin color is.
  
  Report this comment
- seriouslywhy
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 4:28pm
  And don’t forget the New Black Panthers, who plan to “monitor” the polls as well. I wonder how many billy clubs we’ll see tomorrow.
  
  Vote Romney/Ryan 2012!
  
  Report this comment
- kenboo1
  Posted on November 6, 2012 at 10:21am
  Sine labore nihil Actually the NAACP was started by republicans: (NAACP) was founded on February 12, 1909. After a race riot in Springfield, Illinois in 1908, “The Call” went out to Northerners to find a way to create social equality. In 1909, a group of multi-racial activists held a conference in New York City in response to “The Call” and decided to form the NAACP (originally called the National ***** Committee). Among the founders were W.E.B. DuBois, Ida Wells-Barnett, Henry Moscowitz, Oswald Garrison Villiard, Mary White Ovington, and William English Walling.
  
  Only the KKK was notoriously a Democrat organization… Isn’t it funny how people that want other people to pay for their stuff are Democrats???
  
  Report this comment
Jimmmy
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 11:20pm
I don’t like the sound of this idea of letting the disabled skip the line. It smells like socialism to me. God bless people like Mrs. Rockwell for having the guts to go into black neighborhoods to put a stop to it. We may not be able to stop these folks from voting anymore but we can sure as heck slow them down.

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- Kenszen
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 12:49am
  Right on, right on!
  
  Report this comment
- thorkyl
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 12:46pm
  There is a reason for allowing disabled to the front of the line.
  Where I voted, a lady came in on crutches (Single amutee), everybode there let her go ahead so she would not have to stand there for the 15-20 minute wait.
  
  So there are cases when oving people forward in the line is a good thing.
  
  Now moving people to the front of the line becouse they agree with the naacp is completely different.
  
  Report this comment
denkat56
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:37pm
What would john Wayne do? They broke the law, I thought Texans didn’t take sh## from no one.

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- oxycontinxx
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 5:35am
  call the cops, have the perps put into metal bracelets, and haul them off to a hoosegow……………
  
  Report this comment
- landowner
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 10:43am
  Sorry to say but THAT part of Texas is a liberal stronghold.
  
  Report this comment
BasketFullOfPuppies
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:30pm
Hopefully, the next attorney general, that we get next year, will do his job and actually investigate and prosecute those that feel it within their right to mess with the elections.

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- The Giver
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:40pm
  Volunteer as poll watchers. Many places need them. They train you. We will NOT let them steal this election. If Romney loses, let it be a legitimate loss. Pray he wins…and that God heals our land.
  
  Report this comment
Alaskan Fox
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:17pm
Didn’t Texas threaten the UN if they came near the polling locations that they would have charges pressed against them? Why aren’t they pressing charges against these individuals? Do they have any right to be there and taking over? I doubt it!

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Crotchety_conservative202
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:14pm
The early voting location was at the same address as the office address for Texas Representative Shirley Jackson Lee. Any guesses as to why the NAACP felt they could run roughshod over Texas election law?

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- vkscott
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 11:14pm
  Doesn’t surprise me.
  
  Report this comment
The-Monk
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:01pm
911… “What’s your emergency?”

Poll watcher…. “Get the police here ASAP!!! There’s a bunch of NAACP people hear manipulating the voter machines.”

911… “Please hold while I transfer your call.”

DOJ… “Hello, this is the DOJ, how may we help you?”

Poll watcher…. “There’s a bunch of NAACP people here manipulating the voter machines!!!”

DOJ… “Are they black?”

Poll watcher… “YES !!”

DOJ… “Don’t worry, we’re sending the NBPP to help.”

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TexasTeaPartier1967
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:58pm
Why hasn’t the Texas Office of the Attorney General been informed? Why hasn’t the Texas Secretary of State’s Office been contacted?

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- Crotchety_conservative202
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:15pm
  They certainly should be. Either by the Harris County Republican Party or by True The Vote.
  
  Report this comment
Ilikepeople
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:56pm
Someday in a land that is similar to what the U.S was, [Was] when liberty was in the U.S, people may read about the U.S like people read about the Roman Empire. Or maybe not, it might just be like what people read about in the Bible before the Great Flood, or they’ll can it lost Atlantis.

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Chrison
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:54pm
It’s one thing for a campaign worker (which, obviously, these NAACP people were) to drive a voter to a polling place. That’s legitimate and has been done by all parties for years. It’s another thing, though, for the a campaign worker to “escort” a voter to the voting booth and “instruct” that person how to vote. That is NOT appropriate, and that’s what it appears these people were doing!

It’s also NOT appropriate FOR ANY REASON for a campaign worker to start “managing” the line-up of people waiting to vote! That is NOT their role! Those people should have been immediately told to leave the building, and if they didn’t the police should have been called and they should have been arrested!

Period!

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- AxelPhantom
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:38pm
  Agreed.
  
  Report this comment
- CriticalMass
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 12:33am
  Poll watchers are the only people who can legally “instruct” a person how the voting machine works. They can demonstrate it, but then they are supposed to step away and are only permitted to approach the booth if the person requests it.
  
  This stuff being reported is insanity. Can you imagine what a $#!tstorm could be ahead (in some areas) if Romney wins? There are too many people in this country now who feel entitled to this and that, and it would be all too easy to imagine quite a few of them thinking it was all going to be taken away from them if Obama isn’t re-elected. Right now, they also believe (for the most part, rightly so) that Eric Holder’s new kinder and gentler wouldn’t prosecute them. And the effect could be the same (again, in some areas) if Obama wins.
  
  I will certainly be avoiding any questionable areas of town in the days following the election, no matter who wins. Think about it.
  
  Report this comment
Ilikepeople
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:54pm
Yeah, even if Romney gets in there I don’t see the National debt slowing down much, and it would take an act of God to make it go away, and I just don’t see that happening.

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- Gregb
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:08pm
  it will take a while for the national debt to go down, but we will see lower prices at the pump and lower taxes. obama care is going to hit hard next year along with the rise in taxes that obama has for the middle class and the rise in the cost of social security. obama has destroyed our economy and we need to build it back up. It will not be instant, but with Romney/Ryan it will be something that we can count on.
  
  Report this comment
- StrongWesternbabeluvinherWesternMAN
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:43pm
  then u do not understand why this land became the land of freedom..if we went back in a time capsule and were able 2 interview those who came here 2 escape people like those who inhabit the UN…you may hear your exact comments…they never thought that this young nation could be a land that people had the freedom 2 make their own choices. Also in the 1940s why did the tiny lil area called Isreal defeat those who wanted 2 kill them in only how many days? This war was only in days not years…Why does the USA & Israel continue 2 be?
  
  Report this comment
veryconservative
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:49pm
I went with my son here in Sylva N.C. to vote on friday and first thing out of the car was a young girl with a democrat sign around her neck. She got pretty close up in my face telling me to vote Obama. I could barely contain my anger and blurted out WHEN HELL FREEZES OVER!!!!! When we get upstairs to vote they can’t find my sons name.so he goes next door to reregister. They want him to fill out a piece of paper that ask him to draw a map with lines for roads that leads from the sheriffs office to our house when we refused they said we could not vote. I got livid and told them they were trying to steal my sons vote.and that i would get a lawyer and sue. They had a deputy to stand at our side as we voted. They are trying to steal this election.so PLEASE GO VOTE!!!!! They can’t overcome all of us if we do what Wisconsin did!!! VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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- The Giver
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:36pm
  Thank you! I’m glad you didn’t give up. They are desperate for him to finish the job! Thanks to your son too!
  
  Report this comment
- pragmaticpatriot
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:47pm
  the rules only apply to conservatives, dealing with liberals is like dealing with a room full of 3 yr olds! i havent voted yet but my video camera is going with me!
  
  Report this comment
- CriticalMass
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 12:55am
  Holy Moly, VC!!!! That is incredible. Wow… just wow. Here in SC, there isn’t supposed to be ANYONE with a sign or even a candidate’s sticker on their clothing within 100 feet of the polling place. If someone had come up to me like that HERE, I would have told them that they could get arrested for that.
  
  Either that, or I would have said, “YEAH, BABY! OBAMA ALL THE WAY!” just to get her the hell away from me.
  
  VC, did you have to help them find your son’s name in the voter rollbook? Also, did you get the idea they were trying to find out where your house is with that map drawing stuff?
  
  Report this comment
- QuincySmith
  Posted on November 5, 2012 at 1:32am
  Saw a video (tv or internet) which said that they expect a top number of 100K to 250K fraudulent votes nationwide. I think Americans are so tired of seeing that skinny, lying, big-eared, Big Bird-loving incompetent every day we will overcome that number. They showed several cities where these votes could impact the election, but from what I see the R’s (Romney/Ryan) will out poll many of these contested cities.
  
  Report this comment
Ilikepeople
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:48pm
When I look around I don’t find too many people who actually understand just how truly insignificant they are to not only the earth, but the universe at large. I mean, unless I count some homeless people, who understand, and they won’t really care if the bottom falls out of the system.

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- Wringeaux
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 11:21pm
  What does this mean ? > I mean, unless I count some homeless people, who understand, and they won’t really care if the bottom falls out of the system.
  
  Report this comment
BlackCrow
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:43pm
Pack them up and send them back to New Orleans. Unless the GOOD people of Texas already have them in jail. Houston is full of Karena evacuees, That is who sent Shelia Jackson-Lee to Congress. She DOES NOT speak for Texas!

Just remember, we have you surrounded. That goes for the lefties in Austin too. Your Prius can be easily scraped off the brush bumper of a F350 Super Duty.

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- Gregb
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:15pm
  just hit my “like” button and put a “smiley face” on this one!
  
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TexasTeaPartier1967
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:40pm
Law enforcement need to ensure that order is maintained at the polls

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coyote1hell
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:40pm
Democraps are the sorriest, lowest, simple-minded, turds on the planet, momma o’bama will be gone…sorry.. he won’t be able to wipe your running little democrap noses anymore…

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Sickandtiredofextremists
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:34pm
Pack up the NAACP, Black Panthers, etc. and send them back where they came from. I want my country taken back from the radicals. I’m sick and tired of extremism and those who promote it!

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- Stoic one
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:27pm
  I understand your frustration.
  BUT
  Those ‘folks’ have rights as well. Unfortunately they are pushing the envelope of what is right and proper; IE on the verge of breaking the law, if not in fact breaking the law. This is in fact what is ruffle-ling our feathers, seemingly violating the law.
  
  What these ‘folks’ want, if presented in a honest and truthful fashion, ninety percent of all voters would reject outright. They know this. this is a power grab by these ‘folks’ and Bathhouse Barry knows this as well. This is what he, Bathhouse Barry, wants; a power grab.
  
  Report this comment
FREEDOM_IS_NOT_FREE
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:31pm
If someone tried to video this they would probably have been thrown out for breaking the rules. Funny how the rules don’t seem to be applied to everyone.

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kindling
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:29pm
I wonder if any of these people are Christian? Do any of them even know the 10 Commandments? Do they think God wants them to cheat? If Obama was a good president he would not need to have so many people cheat to get him re elected. So much hate, but I wonder who they really hate, I think it is themselves.

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Smokey_Bojangles
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:29pm
You cant say anything about voter intimidation and Black organizations.Eric Holder proved that in 2008.That is called Racism. Then again, so is voting for anyone but Obama.Voting for Allen West is Racism as well.You have to vote for the correct people or it is racism.

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momrules
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:25pm
Please remember who the Houston mayor is and who Assistant Harris County Attorney Douglas works for.
If you don’t know anything about Mayor Annise Parker just do a tiny bit of research about her. A little will tell you a lot about her and Houston.

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- momrules
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:15pm
  The Blaze has been pulling posts left and right recently but even after I reported Jennifer’s spam it has remained posted.
  Hmmm………
  
  Report this comment
LeadNotFollow
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:22pm
.
In my opinion, the ONLY way any Demoncrat can win an election is through VOTER FRAUD!

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- Chromo200
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:30pm
  Agree
  
  Report this comment
honestynow
Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:18pm
Did no one think to video/photograph this?

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- kickagrandma
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:25pm
  Good response and what we are telling people all over the place: take cameras, cell phones, video cameras, whatever with you to the polls. If anything untoward happens, get names if you can, license plates, car info. STAND FOR AMERICA. STAND FOR FREEDOM. This is it.
  
  And, first and foremost, PRAY.
  
  Report this comment
- Smokey_Bojangles
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:31pm
  I do not think you can take those into the polls.Well,unless you are wearing a NAACP T-Shirt.
  
  Report this comment
- Advection
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 9:33pm
  I’m making sure to fully charge my phone before I go to my polling place. I plan to audio record the event, and if anything like this happens, I’ll switch to video mode.
  
  Google it to check whether its legal in your state. It’s legal here in Louisiana. And if anyone complains, I can just slip the phone in its holster and they’ll think its off while it continues to record video. That way I can exercise my rights and avoid a scene with lunatics.
  
  Report this comment
- JP4JOY
  Posted on November 4, 2012 at 10:12pm
  Don’t think cameras are allowed inside polling places ;-)
  
  Report this comment

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