Travis County Commssioners Court
February 10, 2004
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Items 36 & 40
36. Consider and approve the new polling places and consolidated precincts identified for the March 9, 2004 joint primary election.
>> thank you, judge. Why don't we begin with the early voting locations. The Commissioner of precinct 1 and the court had asked me to take one more look at the randall's berkman. Which I did.
>> item 40?
>> 40, yes, ma'am.
>> okay. 40.
>> well, we need to call up item 40?
>> I'm sorry. I thought that you called them both at the same time.
>> no. I called up 36. Need to call 40, also, we can do it.
>> okay. 40. Consider and take appropriate action on order designating main early voting polling place and temporary branch early voting polling places and hours for early voting on weekdays. Weekends [sic]
>> ieed to inform the court that I was successful at convincing randall's berkman to allow us to be in their store either for permanent location or for a mobile location. However I would like to point out that randall's has been very cooperative to us in their larger stores around Travis County. The plan that you have before you is basically the same one that I brought back -- that I brought to you last week with a couple of corrections that you asked for. One of them is that we have made clear that the Travis County airport boulevard offices is done and that in our backup term as well as the flier we make sure -- we make clear that it's h.e.b. Four points in -- that's consistent through all of our materials.
>> also the primary care deal at the springdale.
>> that's correct. We also made sure that we said springdale center primary health care.
>> right. Because --
>> correct. That's on your listing.
>> exactly. We saw the change --
>> one other thing that we might want to make sure our voters understand is that we are still voting at highland mall and northcross mall by Barton Creek mall is no longer an early voting site.
>> dana, are those all [indiscernible] properties.
>> north cross is not and neither is highland.
>> highland is a -- what's the rauss company?
>> I think that's right. Yes, they are not simon is the point.
>> dana, also, on that randall's location on berkman and 290, could you basically tell the reasons why they did not want to have a permanent early voting location there or a mobile unit at that particular location?
>> yes --
>> because I know folks have kind of been asking, inquiring, why not. You just publicly state the reasons I really would appreciate that.
>> it's an older facility that is very small. And the -- what the store -- what the corporate store, I think that the manager there is -- is amenable to -- to working out something, but corporate says that they really feel like that they cannot meet their target for revenue and give up floor space in order to give up any kind of voting. Also there's an electric problem, it's an older facility, only electrified for just what they need.
>> okay, thank you.
>> any other question for 40.
>> move approval for locations.
>> second.
>> any more discussion? All in favor, that passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you, that would include early voting and mobile. Just to clarify.
>> everything.
>> right, everything.
>> now, we could go to the regular election day polling places. The thing that we need to remind our voters, we have been through redistricting, we are going to see new polling places, about half of our voters have been affected by redistricting, this is no small thing. We have a challenge ahead of us to get the word out to voters, double check before you leave the house on election day to make sure that you know where your polling place is. We have combined a few, but really held that to an absolute minimum. We don't like for voters to have to drive too far or be too crowded in a facility when they go to vote on election day. As a result of redistricting, we have also had to do some sort of creative things. Typically for election day we vote in schools, public buildings, churches, occasionally an apartment complex community room. Those sorts of facilities. It should be a landmark building that's easy for voters to find. But with brand new precinct lines and the obligation for us to have a polling place inside those new boundary lines, we've had to get a little creative. For election day we have folks we need to thank for stepping forward and filling in some gaps. In particular, in precincts 413, the home depot at 8800 i-35 south is going to help us out. The red barn garden center is going to be an election day polling place. The [indiscernible] inn and suites are going to step up again. Finally a personal residence, a couple has offered their garage in a place where we simply cannot find anything else in precinct 466, so our heartfelt thanks to the individuals opening the garage to the voters in that precinct. That's nice of them to do that. We have had it -- we have done this once before. In the 80s. It is rare for us to do any sort of voting in a private residence, but they really filled in where we had a big gap.
>> dana?
>> yes, sir.
>> I think that this is really interesting and I would love for everybody in this community in this country to know isn't it interesting that we can vote in somebody's private home and we cannot vote in a u.s. Post office.
>> they have special law --
>> something, something, something, something is wrong.
>> yeah.
>> I mean and -- I will work with you, I mean. Through lamar's office, I mean. I mean that is something that I don't understand. They are a.d.a. Com client, lots of room, lots of parking. My gosh when you cannot vote in a u.s. Post office, that's -- that's -- I mean people will just kind of go don't even ask.
>> we thought it was a great idea, too, when we started looking around for polling places like oh, let's try the post offices and -- [multiple voices]
>> I would like to work with you on that. , I mean, maybe we just need some sort of a resolution or something from the Commissioners court that would say why in the world would you not be able to vote at a u.s. Post office.
>> the answer is it's a federal law. They wrote it specifically that no other activities can happen there. But certainly I would love if they would reconsider. That would be great. Because that was really take care of a lot of places in our community where they have no other landmark building, it would be very helpful.
>> I sent you something this morning, apparently the secretary of state's office did get some emergency funding to help counties fully fund the cost of these primaries, I was a little perturbed to nd out we weren't going to get fully funded because the state was having difficulties.
>> well, let's make sure that we are clear on the benefit to us. Because what happens is the county has already planned their budgets for early voting, that's state law that we have that responsibility. To our budget was already set and taken care of. At the time when it came for the county -- excuse me the democratic and republican county chairs to receive their funding for their election day activities, they received drastic cuts. So that meant they were trying to find money to have ballots and personnel and distribution for election day. Now the good news is that we wouldn't want to have been in a position where we have to provide those resources under our contract, but perhaps getting full reimbursement might have been an issue. So now we don't have to worry about that. At least it's attorney care of. We are not going to have to hold a bake sale for Travis County to get reimbursed for conducting the democratic and republican primaries. So it does protect us from any unanticipated shortfall.
>> move approval of all of the March 19, 2004 commended polling places.
>> second.
>> could I make a comment, please?
>> all right. Tamara armstrong, county attorney.
>> 19th you said.
>> March 9th.
>> yes, actually, what the order does is by this order you were designating election day polling places generally. Under the law the parties approve election day polling places for the joint primary and dana approves the consequences. You are approving county -- consolidations. You are approving the polling places to be use understand the joint primary.
>> that's exactly what I'm doing with my motion. Thank you, tamara.
>> now I understand it.
>> and the second covers that motion, right?
>> uh-huh.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you, have a nice day.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much for your work.
Last Modified: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 9:04 AM