The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating reports of voter intimidation in Harris County during early voting, according to the Texas Democratic Party, which singled out Houston tea party spinoff King Street Patriots and KSP/True The Vote (KSP/TTV) and its poll watcher volunteers.

**Update 7 p.m. Central Time: A DOJ spokeswoman confirmed that the DOJ has been notified of the alleged incidences and is looking into it. She said the DOJ is currently “gathering information” about the alleged incidences.**

Yesterday, the Harris County and Texas Democrats added KSP/TTV to an ongoing lawsuit involving the Green Party over hidden donors to nonprofits Democrats believe to be engaging in political activity.

KSP/TTV’s general counsel from The Liberty Institute called the lawsuit “unconstitutional” and an “embarrassment” in a statement.

“This lawsuit and the coordinated ethics complaint filed by a George Soros funded corporation are bullying tactics to intimidate citizens into silence. It won’t work,” according to the statement, alluding to a sworn complaint filed Monday by nonprofit watchdog Texans for Public Justice.

In Harris County, Democratic observers documented 20 incidences that have taken place during early voting so far, including 10 where poll watchers allegedly intimidated voters. Specific details are given for only two of those alleged incidences: in Acres Homes, where “poll watchers are intrusive, picking on her as EV staff, watching voters cast votes, tracking personal info of voters, violating her personal privacy,” and at Kingwood Library, where “man said “you going to vote twice, I’m sick of you people, f… you,”" according to the Democrats’ report.

Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for the Liberty Institute, told the Quorum Report that the poll watchers could not be KSP/TTV members, because King Street Patriots (a 501(c)4) and True The Vote (a 501(c)3) are not membership organizations. Each is a non-membership nonprofit corporation filed with the Texas Secretary of State.

“The King Street Patriots don’t have any registered poll watchers,” Sasser told the Houston Chronicle. “Registered poll watchers work for either a party or a candidate.”

KSP/TTV president Catherine Engelbrecht has said her organization has an agreement with the Harris County Republican Party to train GOP poll watchers, but does not have a similar agreement with Democrats or any other party. Meanwhile, a “True The Vote Poll Watcher Update” is posted on King Street Patriot’s website. According to the update — titled, “289 Patriot Poll Watchers Still Needed” — “The True the Vote project has filled well over 600 polling place positions, which is fantastic, but we still need more Poll Watchers.” The update links to the separate True the Vote website.

(Photo: Flickr Creative Commons/Muffet)