United States District Court Southern District of Texas Corpus Christi Division
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS CORPUS CHRISTI DIVISION MARC VEASEY, ET AL., ) CASE NO: 2:13-CV-00193 ) Plaintiffs, ) CIVIL ) vs. ) Corpus Christi, Texas ) RICK PERRY, ET AL., ) Wednesday, September 10, 2014 ) (7:59 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.) Defendants. ) (1:04 p.m. to 5:50 p.m.) BENCH TRIAL - DAY 7 BEFORE THE HONORABLE NELVA GONZALES RAMOS, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE Appearances: See Next Page Court Recorder: Genay Rogan / Lori Cayce Clerk: Brandy Cortez Court Security Officer: Adrian Perez Transcriber: Exceptional Reporting Services, Inc. P.O. Box 18668 Corpus Christi, TX 78480-8668 361 949-2988 Proceedings recorded by electronic sound recording; transcript produced by transcription service. EXCEPTIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC 2 APPEARANCES FOR: Plaintiffs: CHAD W. DUNN, ESQ. KEMBEL SCOTT BRAZIL, ESQ. Brazil and Dunn 4201 Cypress Creek Parkway, Suite 530 Houston, TX 77068 ARMAND DERFNER, ESQ. P.O. Box 600 Charleston, SC 29402 J. GERALD HEBERT, ESQ. Attorney at Law 191 Somervelle Street #405 Alexandria, VA 22304 NEIL G. BARON, ESQ. 914 FM 517 Rd. W, Suite 242 Dickinson, TX 77539 EMMA P. SIMSON, ESQ. Campaign Legal Center 215 E. Street NE Washington, DC 20002 Mexican American EZRA D. ROSENBERG, ESQ. Legislative Caucus, Dechert, LLP et al.: 902 Carnegie Center, Suite 500 Princeton, NJ 08540-6531 MARK A. POSNER, ESQ. AMY L. RUDD, ESQ. GARY BLEDSOE, ESQ. SONIA K. GILL, ESQ. ERANDI ZAMORA, ESQ. Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights 1401 New York Ave. NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20005 DANIEL G. COVICH, ESQ. 802 N. Carancahua, Suite 2100 Corpus Christi, TX 78401 EXCEPTIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC 3 APPEARANCES FOR: (CONTINUED) Mexican American MYRNA PEREZ, ESQ. Legislative Caucus, VISHAL AGRAHARKAR, ESQ. et al.: JENNIFER CLARK, ESQ. Brennan Center for Justice 161 Avenue of the Americas 12th Floor New York, NY 10013 United States RICHARD DELLHEIM, ESQ. of America: ELIZABETH S. WESTFALL, ESQ. DANIEL FREEMAN, ESQ. ANNA BALDWIN, ESQ. AVNER SHAPIRO, ESQ. MEREDITH BELL-PLATTS, ESQ. JOHN SMITH, ESQ. PAXTON WARNER, ESQ. BRADLEY HEARD, ESQ. ROBERT BERMAN, ESQ. U.S. Department of Justice 950 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, DC 20530 BRUCE I. GEAR, ESQ. Department of Justice 1800 G Street NW Washington, DC 20006 Ortiz Plaintiffs, JOSE GARZA, ESQ. et al.: 7414 Robin Rest Dr. San Antonio, TX 78209 ROBERT W. DOGGETT, ESQ. Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, Inc. 4920 North IH 35 Austin, TX 78751 MARINDA VAN DALEN, ESQ. Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc. 531 E. St. Francis Brownsville, TX 78520 EXCEPTIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC 4 APPEARANCES FOR: (CONTINUED) Texas League of Young RYAN HAYGOOD, ESQ. Voters Education Fund: NATASHA KORGAONKAR, ESQ. DEUEL ROSS, ESQ. LEAH ADEN, ESQ. NAACP Legal Def. and Educational Fund 40 Rector St., 5th Floor New York, NY 10006 DANIELLE CONLEY, ESQ. KELLY DUNBAR, ESQ. M. HASAN ALI, ESQ. LYNN EISENBERG, ESQ. JONATHAN E. PAIKIN, ESQ. RICHARD F. SHORDT, ESQ. SONYA LEBSACK, ESQ. TANIA C. FARANSSO, ESQ. Wilmer Cutler Pickering, et al. 1875 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20006 Texas Association of ROLANDO L. RIOS, ESQ. Hispanic County Judges 115 E. Travis and County Suite 1654 Commissioners: San Antonio, TX 78205 PRESTON HENRICHSON, ESQ. 222 W. Cano Edinburg, TX 78539 State of Texas: JOHN BARRET SCOTT, ESQ. Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation Office of the Attorney General P.O. Box 12548 Austin, TX 78711 JOHN REED CLAY, JR., ESQ. LINDSEY E. WOLF, ESQ. JENNIFER ROSCETTI, ESQ. G. DAVID WHITLEY, ESQ. STEPHEN L. TATUM, JR., ESQ. STEPHEN R. KEISTER, ESQ. Office of the Attorney General P.O. Box 12548 MC001 Austin, TX 78711 EXCEPTIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC 5 APPEARANCES FOR: (CONTINUED) State of Texas: BEN A. DONNELL, ESQ. Donnell Abernethy Kieschnick 555 N. Carancahua, Suite 400 Corpus Christi, TX 78401 WHITNEY DEASON, ESQ. JOHN CRAWFORD, ESQ. Non-Party Senators ARTHUR D’ANDREA, ESQ. & Non-Party Office of the Attorney General Representatives: 209 W. 14th Street, 7th Floor Austin, TX 78701 DAVID TALBOT, ESQ. JAMES B. ECCLES, ESQ. Office of the AG of Texas 300 W. 15th Street, 11th Floor Austin, TX 78701 ALICE LONDON, ESQ. Bishop London Brophy & Dodds 3701 Bee Cave Rd., Suite 200 Austin, TX 78746 EXCEPTIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC 6 1 INDEX 2 DEFENDANTS' WITNESSES DIRECT CROSS REDIRECT RECROSS 3 DAVID DEWHURST 12 48 4 (VIA DEPO) 5 M.V. HOOD, III 6 BY MR. SCOTT 79 7 BY MR. DELLHEIM 121/191 8 BY MR. ROSENBERG 211 9 BY MR. DUNN 238 10 DAN PATRICK 245 288 11 (VIA DEPO) 12 BRIAN KEITH INGRAM 13 BY MR. SCOTT 307 14 BY MS. WESTFALL 336 15 BY MR. DUNBAR 371 16 BY MR. BRAZIL 383 17 TROY FRASER 397 403 18 (VIA DEPO) 19 20 21 EXCEPTIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC 7 1 Corpus Christi, Texas; Wednesday, September 10, 2014; 7:59 a.m. 2 (Call to Order) 3 THE COURT: Good morning. 4 MR. ROSENBERG: Good morning, your Honor. Ezra 5 Rosenberg. I wanted to report on not just the progress, but I 6 think the success that we had in our discussions, subject to 7 your approval, of course, and particularly as to a crucial 8 aspect of what we have agreed to. 9 Number one, the plaintiffs will not -- will withdraw 10 their objection to defendants' amended responses to the 11 deposition (indiscernible) questions that were filed yesterday. 12 Number two -- and, as a result of -- a little 13 preface. As a result of those -- that amendment, as I said 14 yesterday, there was a kind of a domino effect on some, and as 15 Mr. Derfner will add, not all of the experts. As a result, 16 there has to be some new reports submitted, but the reports are 17 going to be limited to the effect of the change. So, by next 18 Tuesday, close of business, Dr. Ansolabehere and Dr. Webster 19 will file their amended reports limited strictly to the 20 recalculation of the data as a result of the recategorization 21 of the surrender data and as a result of the DWQ. By close of 22 business on Wednesday, Dr. Bazelon will do the same; and that's 23 Wednesday next. By close of business Thursday, Dr. Hood will 24 do the same; and that's Thursday next. 25 The parties have also agreed, subject to your Honor's EXCEPTIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC 8 1 approval, that the supplementation to the findings of fact and 2 conclusions of law will be filed no later than midnight of 3 Thursday next. And, finally -- and this is the one that's 4 certainly subject to your Honor's schedule -- because of the 5 prospect of the changes in some of the reports, the parties 6 have agreed that they really can't close just yet and would 7 ask, if your Honor is available to give us those three hours on 8 Monday, the 22nd, a week from Monday, we would all come back to 9 Corpus Christi and present our closing arguments. 10 Another part of this, of course, is that neither 11 party will be impeaching or -- the credibility or criticizing 12 the other party for relying on the prior calculations. 13 THE COURT: So, the response, that DPS response, is 14 that what went to that 183,000 -- 15 MR. ROSENBERG: That's correct, your Honor. Right. 16 THE COURT: And -- 17 MR. DERFNER: Let me just say this, your Honor. 18 THE COURT: Okay. 19 MR. DERFNER: For that reason, the -- the changes 20 that have to be made, while necessary, are not earth shaking, 21 and they don't fundamentally change the case. Your Honor's 22 heard a number of numbers about no matches ranging from the 23 500,000 to the 700,000 number. The new number, for example, 24 from Dr. Ansolabehere is still going to be in that range, and 25 it's going to be north of the 619,000 number that's been EXCEPTIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC 9 1 bandied about that Mr. Scott has referred to. So, it's a 2 change -- these are changes that need to be taken account of, 3 but they don't fundamentally change the basic numbers. They 4 move them some, but they won't be a big change. 5 THE COURT: Okay. I'm okay with that. 6 What's the timeframe here? I know we have the 7 November elections; we have, I guess, early voting starting 8 mid-October. 9 MR. ROSENBERG: I believe it was October 20th. 10 MS. SPEAKER: Twentieth or 21st, yeah. 11 MR. SCOTT: We've already received applications 12 for -- 13 MS. SPEAKER: Twentieth. 14 MR. SCOTT: -- the early -- I mean the absentee 15 ballots, and then the ones that will be -- the rest of them 16 will be -- I think start being sent out, I think, next week. 17 And I will confirm that. We've got the director of elections 18 here. 19 THE COURT: But for the mail-in ballots that's kind 20 of -- 21 MR. SCOTT: Yes. 22 THE COURT: -- separate (indiscernible). 23 MR. SCOTT: Yes. Yes. 24 MR. DONNELL: It's already in progress. 25 THE COURT: Okay. And the -- EXCEPTIONAL REPORTING SERVICES, INC 10 1 MR. SCOTT: I'll get you the early voting dates. 2 THE COURT: The findings of fact -- the amended or 3 the supplemental, I'm not sure what you all are going to be 4 providing, due a week from tomorrow, I guess -- 5 MR. ROSENBERG: That's correct, your Honor. 6 MR. SCOTT: October 20th. 7 THE COURT: -- with references to the trial 8 transcript, or no? 9 MR. ROSENBERG: Yeah.