Voting for who will lead us is the most fundamental of American rights.

It’s guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.

So why are some Harris County voters and qualified Americans getting blocked from casting their ballots?

Frances Graham says she convinced 138 citizens to vote for the first time this year.

Among those citizens were Ian Meyer, Cathy Sotello, and Donna Siley.

But Harris County eventually rejected them and more than 30 others to the bewilderment of Graham.

Greenblatt: “So they do everything right?”

Graham: “They do everything right.”

Greenblatt: “Yet, they're still getting rejected?”

Graham: “They're still getting rejected.”

Those voters were reportedly rejected for mistakes filling out their registration cards that Graham believes they did not make.

Graham said ultimately one out of three voters she registered faced the same fate.

It’s a fate dozens more will also face says elections expert Lauri Van Hoose.

She studied problems with registering to vote in Harris County using the government’s own records.

“This is not one or two registrations. This is thousands of registrations,” said Van Hoose.

So what's going on?

Democrats allege that Republicans want to block new registrations because studies show new voters are more likely to vote for Democrats in the current election.

Republicans across the nation disagree and say they are just trying to protect the public from voter fraud by being meticulous. 

Paul Bettencourt is the elected, Republican tax collector and registrar in Harris County. 

“I'm not gonna disagree with the fact we had more than 300 ironclad examples of voter fraud,” he said.

Bettencourt’s statement to the 11 News Defenders was similar to one he made nearly a year ago. It was all a part of his testimony before the House Elections Committee in January of 2008.

“We have had a history of illegal voting as well as documented fraud cases in Harris County,” he said then. “What I'm providing to you are 381 absolutely verified and documented cases.”

The hearing was part of a push to strengthen laws that could prohibit voter fraud laws.

“The 381 cases that we have provided to you with this documentation are we believe are ironclad,” he testified.

But not everyone agrees.

“I would not have gone ahead and said ‘I have ironclad cases…,’” said Representative Rafael Anchia. “…when through very little additional investigations I would have the information I was providing was not 100 percent accurate.”

He’s a Democrat who is on the House Elections Committee.  It was held to look into the extent of voter fraud in Texas.

Anchia points to Bettencourt's own exhibit for that hearing as evidence of what made him concerned.

He said that out of Bettencourt’s 381 ironclad cases of voter fraud, at least 121 of them are still under investigation.

On top of it, Anchia said, only one voter fraud case has ever been prosecuted in Harris County in the past eight years.

Recently we asked Bettencourt—

Greenblatt: “Don't you think it's a bit alarmist to call these cases fraud, when you only know one case actually…?

Bettencourt: “No, it's not one case, it is one person.”

Bettencourt went on to say the one person who was prosecuted, registered 61 cards.  

Greenblatt: “You said they were ironclad examples of voter fraud, sir.”

Bettencourt:  (pause) “Mark, your point please?”

Greenblatt: “Before you use that word before the state house, do you think you should be as careful as you could be?”

Bettencourt: “Mark, we are as careful as we could.”

But Anchia is also concerned about other parts of the county's testimony.

You see, Bettencourt also claimed that his office discovered 315 non-citizens, who had attempted to register to vote.

But Anchia says his office easily discovered 34 of those had openly disclosed their status,

What’s more?  Anchia says the County registrar gave those individuals voter cards, despite their truthful disclosure they were non-Citizens.

He also questioned if it was fair to include them as examples in testimony centered around voter fraud, saying he did not believe the voters intentionally did anything wrong if the government issued them voter cards.

“We went ahead and dug a little bit deeper. It just didn't pass the smell test to me,” explains Anchia.

In addition, there were also reportedly 22 non-citizens who Bettencourt testified were able to register and actually vote. But Anchia and his staff found that five of those 22 were actually U.S. citizens.   Another member of the 22 had also truthfully disclosed his status as a non-Citizen, and yet Harris County gave him a voter card anyways.

One of Anchia’s biggest concerns? Not voter fraud- but that those five U.S. citizens had their voting status wrongly revoked by Harris County.

But Bettencourt says he admitted, in advance of the hearing and as part of his exhibit, to making mistakes.  

“I think I'm doing my job, sir,” he told the 11 News Defenders, “because this is what I said in the committee hearing. I didn't go in there and say we didn't have an error, sir. I said I had four errors and that's on file with the House Elections Committee.”

Representative Scott Hochberg is a Democrat and known-critic of Bettencourt.

“If they’re legitimate cases of voter fraud, then let’s fix those problems. Let's not try to cover them up by coming up with ways to deny legitimate voters the right to vote.”

He also has his own view of the County registrar’s office.

Hochberg: “I think the attitude in Mr. Bettencourt's office is when in doubt, reject.”

Greenblatt: “You’ve seen examples.”

Hochberg: “Yes.”

Greenblatt: “In this primary?”

Hochberg: “Yes.”

Greenblatt:  “Where people had their right to vote taken away?”

Hochberg: “Yes sir.”

Hochberg says he’s also found problems where the responsibility lands somewhere between Harris County and the Republican Secretary of State.

“We took data from Mr. Bettencourt's office about how many people had been denied for missing certain check boxes a lot of people commonly missed. The secretary of state looked at that data and said, ‘Wow! We oughtta change the form,’” said Hochberg. 

And so, the state simplified the form and made it easier for applicants to not miss checking required boxes.

But Hochberg says that isn’t the end of the story.

“Mr. Bettencourt's office is not giving those forms out. They're still using the old ones,” said Hochberg.

Greenblatt: “What do you think about that?”

Hochberg: “I think it's insane.”

Bettencourt says that his office has asked the Secretary of State for the new forms, but they still haven’t received them. He also adds: “Representative Hochberg has not provided this office with any complaint in writing.”

Meanwhile, Hochberg says he's found more than 100 cases, like voter applicant Lorraine Brown-Spencer’s.

She applied to vote, but was rejected because she wrote her name with a hyphen on her application- when the state computer with driver's license records showed no hyphen.

Still, Hochberg points to a formal state elections advisory that requires Harris County and others to check for typos like those, before sending rejection letters.

Again, we checked with Bettencourt.

Greenblatt: “Why don't you check for typos before you send that rejection letter? Why don't you check on your own first?”

Bettencourt: “Mark, Mark, we do our best okay.”

In fact, Bettencourt now has two employees that are assigned to look for such typos, however he admits that they operate with little oversight to their fact checking and do not regularly have their work reviewed by a supervisor before rejection letters are sent out.

Two separate studies from the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group concluded voter fraud was not a significant problem across America.

However, Rep. Leo Berman is the Republican Chair of the House Elections Committee. He told us in his opinion; voter fraud is a problem in Texas. He points to a study from the conservative Heritage Foundation.    Berman intends to file legislation in the upcoming session to help prevent it. Berman also said one voter unfairly rejected, is one too many, and suggested Harris County consider other funding sources for  more supervisors- and even calling voter applicants over the telephone to clear up simple mistakes before sending rejection letters.