Direct Action Texas - Page 2 of 20 - Fighting for Transparency & Fiscal Responsibility in Local Government

Bring Back the “Independent” in Grapevine Colleyville INDEPENDENT School District

Posted by Direct Action Texas | April 13, 2018

An Open Letter to Those Who Supported Me in Last Year’s GCISD School Board Election.

When I ran for GCISD school board one year ago, I witnessed a groundswell of stakeholders dissatisfied with changes in the district.

Halfway through LEAD 2021, with 3 students who experienced TAAS, TAKs and STAAR, who spent the last 6 years of their GCISD careers under the guise of “Personalized Learning,” I found nothing could be further from the truth. The “personal” in LEAD 2021 is adaptive technology, not human guidance. My youngest, who was exposed to LEAD 2021 in her more formidable years, did not have the academic legacy of my oldest. Many know our family history and I will not discuss it here, but the district did not teach my girls to read. As a parent, I accepted responsibility and made sure they had appropriate reading instruction. After that, I stood before the GCISD board (which is very different than today’s board) and with a group of other parents, made the board aware that GCISD is responsible for providing appropriate reading instruction for ALL students, not just the easy ones. Today that is truer than ever in all subjects. Every child in GCISD needs to learn to read well, write well, solve math efficiently and effectively, learn history and learn proven science laws and principles. The district vision, created by the board, should include definitive measures of academic proficiency. SAT and ACT are the only national measures of college readiness the majority of students in GCISD will take. Despite great GCISD expense in test preparation and LEAD 2021 vision, the scores on these 2 nationalized tests are statistically flat. What are GCISD tax payers getting for the investment in redefined education? Read More

TEC Rules In Favor of DAT’s Complaint Against Catherine Goodman

Posted by Christine Welborn | April 9, 2018

The Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) has affirmed Direct Action Texas’ complaint against Catherine Goodman, former candidate for Tarrant County Probate Court 1. DAT filed the complaint when we noticed that Goodman had accepted $5,000 over the limit set by the Judicial Fairness Act from a married couple. (For the original article on the complaint click HERE.)

The married couple in question are Dyann and Jere McCully. Dyann McCully is an attorney and a partner at the Blum Firm. According to their website, they are “the largest estate planning firm in Texas and the largest boutique firm in the United States solely dedicated to estate planning.” McCully and her firm would certainly benefit from a friendly Probate Court Judge.

In her Assurance of Voluntary Compliance, Goodman admits to accepting the contributions, but “swore that she did not accept the contributions knowing they were in excess of the limits.” Goodman also claims that her first knowledge of the violation was DAT’s article. This may be true, but ignorance of the law is not a good habit for a lawyer, and especially not someone seeking to become a judge.

Goodman has allegedly returned the $5,000 contribution and the TEC will not assess a civil penalty. Goodman’s former opponents could still pursue civil damages, however.

Once again DAT has illustrated the importance of constant vigilance. The limitations of the Judicial Campaign Fairness Act are well known but the TEC will not act unless someone files a complaint. Candidates as well as elected officials must be held accountable.

Post Primaries…Now What?

Posted by Aaron Harris | March 27, 2018

With the Primaries in the rear view mirror, Direct Action Texas’ work has kicked into high gear. As Texas’ only organization with proven results in finding election fraud, our phones and email have been busy with tips and information about election discrepancies and nefarious activity.

It might surprise you to learn a good number of the leads we’ve received have come from two state agencies. These two agencies have gotten information and/or seen evidence they believe points to election fraud. To whom do they turn to handle such serious allegations? Direct Action Texas. We are the only ones these agencies can rely on to actually investigate and file formal complaints. One of the biggest misconceptions the public has regarding elections is believing that there is some government agency which ensures they’re conducted fairly.

There simply is no one with that job. The state has turned to us for help. We’re honored and happy to oblige.

The sheer number of tips we received forces us to work through them quickly and prioritize those where fraud is verifiable and prosecution is possible. Currently we are looking at primaries in just over 30 counties. Here are two examples of types of investigations we’re pursuing:

Once again we found ourselves in East Texas, this time in Gregg County, where mail-in ballots appear to have been compromised. We’ve found major red flags in the Commissioner Precinct 4 race, findings law enforcement is going to be extremely interested in learning about. We will be making our criminal complaint public in the coming weeks.
Last week we published a video of a harvester working a nursing home in Harris County. If you have not watched that video, you need to see what harvesting in action looks like – SEE IT HERE. State Rep. Harold Dutton is already out denying the video…oddly enough before anyone publicly blamed him. DAT has more videos and is investigating this case as well, stay tuned for updates soon.

From the Texas Panhandle to the border, we have counties with voting irregularities, each distinct in nature. Digging into these elections is long and tedious as there’s significant delay in simply getting the information from each county. After the election, by statute, it can take up to 30 days for counties to provide certain election information. We can not begin analyzing the results until we have received all the information. With over 30 counties we are tracking, just getting the election data in-house is chore. Then the real work on sifting through the begins.

We expect to have as many as a half a dozen criminal complaints from this primary. It could be more, depending on what we find. Mail-in ballot fraud is a real, as is vote harvesting, both of which are wide-spread problems in Texas. One would think the legislature would allocate the resources necessary to ensure the integrity of our elections.

Until they do, you’ll find DAT digging through the evidence. Stay tuned for updates.

Keller ISD – Swap and Drop or Bait and Switch?

Posted by Joel Starnes | March 13, 2018

Keller ISD again is coming to voters asking to increase the tax rate above the max allowed. Apparently, the massive bond money, revenue increases from unprecedented home valuation increases, and long term budget deficits are not enough to cover an apparent inability to spend within their means. They are now planning a tax rate increase so large that it requires taxpayers to vote themselves a larger property tax bill than what we should have to pay. Remember when they did this a few years ago? Voters overwhelmingly said no and then the district punished the voters by limiting bus services.

Over the last several years, the taxpayers in Keller ISD have continued to realize ever increasing and over burdensome property tax increases due to a number of factors.

1. Bonds burdening the district with over $1 billion of debt

2. Long term budget deficits

3. Significant home valuation increases and,

4. Most significant, a school board unwilling to decrease the I&S tax rate so that taxpayers would see little to no increases in their tax bill.

Election Fraud – See the Video!

Posted by Aaron Harris | March 12, 2018

The media and others will tell you constantly, “There is no election fraud”. However to anyone paying attention, it is more like a headline a day of voter fraud investigations.

Today we learned from an article in the Dallas Morning News that the Dallas District Attorney is investigating 1,200 applications for ballot by mail for this month’s primary, but the applications, in many cases, were filled out last year. This is the same area where there is an ongoing criminal investigation into vote harvesting.

Now comes this: Direct Action Texas received a video of a worker harvesting a ballot for Harold Dutton in last week’s Democrat primary. The video (below) shows a worker approaching a voter with that voter’s ballot in hand. The worker appears to have a stack of ballots in her hand. She clearly identifies herself with the Harold Dutton campaign, and proceeds to instruct the voter to check the box for Dutton and sign, and then she leaves with the ballot.