This is great! Keep up the good work Farmers Branch. Don't let them get the best of you! Hold your ground! It's your city you are protecting.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 43dd8.html

Get-out-the-vote effort attracts fans and foes

FB: Ordinance backers crash rivals' meeting on registration drive


12:29 PM CST on Monday, January 29, 2007
By JAY PARSONS / The Dallas Morning News
jparsons@dallasnews.com

FARMERS BRANCH – It didn't take long for Farmers Branch political groups to get out the get-out-the-vote campaigns.

City Council agreed to allow voters to choose May 12 whether to ban illegal immigrants from renting apartments, supporters of the ban showed up uninvited at an opposition meeting on registering new voters.

Let the Voters Decide, a group opposing the ban, organized the meeting Saturday morning inside a private business. About a dozen members of Support Farmers Branch, which backs the ordinance, showed up.

The hosts at first asked their unwelcome guests to leave but later allowed them to stay. The meeting went on without incident, but the two sides left peeved at each other.

"For some reason they were offended," said Tom Bohmier, a volunteer coordinator for Support Farmers Branch. "We came here to be trained to register voters."

Let the Voters Decide organizer Elizabeth Villafranca responded: "That's another indictment on their character. It's obvious they're trying to antagonize the community."

Ms. Villafranca's group led a petition drive that forced the council to drop the ordinance or put the issue before voters. On Monday, the council tweaked the ordinance to allow some exceptions and then agreed to the May 12 referendum. The city will not enforce the ordinance until May 22 – and only if voters approve.

Travis Carter, treasurer of Let the Voters Decide, said the voter-registration drive could tip the outcome. Hispanics traditionally have low voter turnout, and if more are persuaded to register and vote, "that could have a major impact," he said.

"But this doesn't just involve Latinos," said Mr. Carter, whose group hopes to register 500 to 1,000 new voters. "This is not brown versus white."

Support Farmers Branch organizers said they were worried illegal immigrants could obtain voter registration cards through identity theft. They said they were confident legal voters would overwhelmingly keep the ordinance.

Video Kinda fun to watch how upset that the Americans arrived to take advantage of Dept. Registrar training.

Dixie