4/17/2015 10:06:42 AM

Chris Daniel - District Clerk Harris County

Envelope No. 4928558
By: SALENE SMITH
Filed: 4/17/2015 10:06:42 AM

CAUSE NO. 2014-44974

VS.

HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS

152ND JUDICIAL DISTRICT

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ANNISE D. PARKER, MAYOR;

ANNA RUSSELL, CITY
SECRETARY; AND
CITY OF HOUSTON,
Defendants.

IN THE DISTRICT COURT

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JARED WOODFILL,
STEVEN F. HOTZE, MD
F.N. WILLIAMS, SR. and
MAX MILLER,
Plaintiffs,

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Although the Plaintiffs sought mandamus relief which would require the counting

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PLAINTIFFS OBJECTION TO DEFENDANTS TALLY OF REGISTERED VOTERS

AND MOTION TO FORCE THE DEFENDANTS TO CONDUCT A RECOUNT

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of all signatures on the Referendum Petition by City Secretary Anna Russell to determine

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registration status, that has never happened. Last Wednesday, the attorneys for the City and the

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Mayor finally submitted their own tally sheet for the very first time, but only for those pages they

The Plaintiffs have reviewed this tally, and have the following objections. First,

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reluctantly admit are still valid and must be counted under the Courts various rulings.

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there is a methodologically-unsound premise underlying the Citys count.

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determining the registration status of a signer of the Referendum Petition at the time of that
particular voters signature, the Defendants are only reviewing the registration status of a
particular signer of the document as of April of 2015. This is error. Whether a signer is
registered in 2015 is totally and completely immaterial and irrelevant to the question of whether
the signer was registered at the time of his/her signature.
3.

Second, there are over a thousand signers of the Referendum Petition who had

addresses listed on that document that are physically located within the City of Houston.
However, because of the mere passage of time between July of 2014 (when the Referendum
Petition was filed with the City Secretary) and April of 2015 (some 9 months later), the
registration status of those voters shows a different address on the Harris County voter

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registration database than the address on the document. Some of those voters moved from
outside the district to inside the district; others moved from within the district to another location
within the district; and yet a third group of voters moved from inside the district to outside the

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district. But the City ignored these discrepancies, and simply chose to qualify or to disqualify

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each of these voters based on current addresses shown in the database, rather than the

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actual addresses shown at the time of signature. This is wrong, and, especially for those

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instances where a voter was in the district at the time of the signing, but is now living outside the

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A random but representative example of this can be seen on Page 3653 of the

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district as of today, understates the count of registered voters. Plaintiffs accordingly object.

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Referendum Petition, line 5. On July 1, 2014, Cindy Hull signed the Referendum Petition. She

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listed an address in zip code 77060. That zip code is within the City of Houston. However, as of

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today, Cindy Hull is shown at a different address in zip code 77379, which is outside the City of

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This representative example is not an isolated event.

It is purposeful and

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Houston. The City wrongfully excluded this voter from their tally.

intentional and was employed throughout the entire analysis provided by the City. Thus, there
are potentially thousands of improperly excluded voters from the Defendants tally.
6.

Plaintiffs hereby request the Court to order the Defendants to recount all of the

registered voters who signed the Referendum Petition. Not just those signers who are listed on
pages the Court has found to be valid, but on all pages of the document. Only then can we really

know how many registered voters have signed the Referendum Petition and who, at the time of
signature, were validly registered to vote in a City of Houston election district.
7.

The burden to count registered voters under the City of Houston Charter falls

what they were required to do but did not do 9 months ago.

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squarely on the the Defendants, not the Plaintiffs. Now is the time to force the Defendants to do

Respectfully Submitted,

ANDY TAYLOR & ASSOCIATES, P.C.

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BY: /s/ Andy Taylor

Andy Taylor
State Bar No. 19727600
Amanda Peterson
State Bar No. 24032953
2668 Highway 36S, #288
Brenham, Texas 77833
713-222-1817 (telephone)
713-222-1855 (facsimile)

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ATTORNEYS FOR JARED WOODFILL, F.N.

WILLIAMS, SR. AND MAX MILLER

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

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I hereby certify that a true and correct copy of the attached document was served via
email on the 17th day of April, 2015 to the following attorneys.

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Geoffrey L. Harrison
gharrison@susmangodfrey.com
State Bar No. 00785947
Alex Kaplan
akaplan@susmangodfrey.com
State Bar No. 24046185
Kristen Schlemmer
kschlemmer@susmangodfrey.com
State Bar No. 24075029
SUSMAN GODFREY L.L.P.
1000 Louisiana Street, Suite 5100
Houston, Texas 77002-5096
Telephone: (713) 651-9366
Facsimile: (713) 654-6666

HAYNES AND BOONE, LLP

Lynne Liberato
State Bar No. 00000075
Kent Rutter
State Bar No. 00797364
William Feldman
State Bar No. 24081715
Katie Dolan-Galaviz
State Bar No. 24069620
1221 McKinney, Suite 2100
Houston, Texas 77010-2007
Telephone: (713) 547-2000
Facsimile: (713) 547-2600
Lynne.Liberato@haynesboone.com
Kent.Rutter@haynesboone.com
william.feldman@haynesboone.com
katie.dolan-galaviz@haynesboone.com
Appellate Attorneys for All Defendants

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FULBRIGHT & JAWORSKI LLP

Edward B. Teddy Adams, Jr.
State Bar No. 00790200
Andrew Price
State Bar No. 24002791
Seth Isgur
State Bar No. 24054498
Geraldine W. Young
State Bar No. 24084134
1301 McKinney, Suite 5100
Houston, Texas 77010-3095
Telephone: (713) 651-5151
Facsimile: (713) 651-5246
Teddy.Adams@nortonrosefulbright.com
Andrew.Price@nortonrosefulbright.com
Seth.Isgur@nortonrosefulbright.com
Geraldine.Young@nortonrosefulbright.com
Attorneys for Anna Russell, City Secretary

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CITY OF HOUSTON LEGAL DEPARTMENT

David Feldman
State Bar No. 06886700
Lynette Fons
State Bar No. 13268100
Judith L. Ramsey
State Bar No. 16519550
900 Bagby, 4th Floor
Houston, Texas 77002
Telephone: (832) 393-6412
Facsimile: (832) 393-6259
David.Feldman@houstontx.gov
Lynette.Fons@houstontx.gov
Judith.Ramsey@houstontx.gov
Attorneys for Annise D. Parker, Mayor

/s/ Andy Taylor________