At my age, I thought I’d seen pretty much everything – and I’ve been to the carny sideshow at the Texas State Fair twice.

But now comes a Houston-based, tea party outfit calling itself True the Vote. It claims to be dedicated to sniffing out ineligible voters – in particular, your darker-skinned Democrat types. TTV claims that hordes of these undesirables are swarming America’s polling places to vote illegally. Sadly, though, these self-appointed guardians of ballot integrity have not had much luck in sniffing out, you know, actual documented cases of such fraud.

But, whew, what’s that smell? Why, it’s Bruce Fleming, a Repub­lican running for county commissioner in Sugar Land, Texas, which happens to be the home of True the Vote’s founder, Catherine Engelbrecht. Bruce turns out to be a blatant, serial violator of our nation’s laws to protect – you got it! – voter integrity. In 2006, 2008, and 2010, Bruce voted in person in Sugar Land, and also by mail in Yardley, Pa., where he and his wife own a home. In 2010, she also voted in both Texas and Pennsylvania – a gross double-dipping felony.

So, while Ms. Englebrecht and her cadre of vote sniffers have been challenging the eligibility of voters all over Amer­ica, she had a real fraud case right under her nose! While Bruce and spouse are said to have no formal role with True the Vote, he is an advocate of its witch-hunt for illegal Democratic voters. As for his own recidivist fraudulence, Fleming says: “The less said the better. Until we can determine the situation, I can’t really comment.”

Hey, Bruce – I think you just did comment by saying “no comment.” Did I mention that Fleming was named the county’s Republican “precinct chairman of the year” in 2010? Now that’s a powerful comment on the GOP’s real concern about voter fraud.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.