Mayor Parker’s misleading HERO ballot language drags city into a new lawsuit
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Houston Attorney Andy Taylor will hold a news conference Friday morning, August 6th to announce a NEW legal challenge to the ballot language for the November HERO Election.
“This Mayor continues to demonstrate an embarrassingly callous disregard for the Constitution,” says Taylor. “We warned her that the ballot language she insisted upon was dead on arrival from a legal perspective. Parker has left us with no choice but to ask the Texas Supreme Court to send her another clear message.”
Wednesday the Houston City Council voted to put the HERO ordinance question on the ballot, but the Mayor decided to play games with the language in an effort to confuse voters on the effect of a “Yes” or “No” vote.
The Houston City Charter specifically requires the Mayor City Council to submit HERO in such a manner that it shall not take effect unless a majority of the qualified voters voting thereon at such election shall vote in favor thereof. This, if a voter is in favor of HERO, they are supposed to vote “Yes,” while a voter who is against HERO is supposed to vote “No.” But that’s
not what this lawless Mayor did. To the contrary, she intentionally reversed the ballot language in such a way that a vote in favor is a “No” vote and a vote against is a “Yes” vote. The ballot language will force voters to vote on whether to repeal the ordinance, rather than voting on whether to adopt the HERO ordinance.
“This double negative ballot language is no accident. Parker knows polls show most Houstonians are against the HERO ordinance, but they will have to now vote yes. It is confusing, even to members of City Council and the Mayor knows that. It is sad she continues to waste taxpayer money playing games.”
Obviously time is of the essence in this writ of mandamus action. The proper ballot language must be in place before the end of the month to get absentee ballots prepared.
The news conference will be held at 10:00 am at the Hilton Post Oak, 2001 Post Oak Blvd.
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