Travis County Commissioners Court
January 5, 2010,
Item 12
>> number 12, consider and take appropriate action regarding an order designating maine early voting place, temporary branch early voting polling places and hours for early voting on weekdays for March 2, 2010, joint primary election.
>> the plan that you have before you is for early voting for the March 2nd democratic and republican primaries.
early voting willing start on Tuesday, February 16th, which feels like right around the corner.
and it files that way to us, anyway.
the list before you follows the same budget plan that we started talking out with at the -- talking about in the beginning of the budget year.
we cut way back for the constitutional amendment election for this budget year just trying caroul and represent our resources, this also shows an attempt to stale save as much many as we can, waiting for what is going to happen in November, so we started out with 16 early voting locations in the constitutional amendment.
this shows a step up, a little bit more money, 20 locations.
for November we will be back up to what this consider considers normal which is 24 locations for the big gubernatorial election but we are trying to step our way there to carefully marshall our resources so this is still the same plan we have talked about earlier in the budget year scaled back a little bit but -- but more than what we did for the constitutional amendment.
i would note that h-e-b does -- is working with us to off the south congress and oltorf location in a mobile mini, and we will be asking all of the candidates, democratic and represent candidates to please don't mess with h-e-b out there.
please -- you know, it is a very tiny location.
it is difficult to manage it.
we are incredibly grateful to h-e-b for letting us have an almost unworkable location.
they are doing a really great job to managerial of the security issues and the traffic issues.
it is not easy and if we have candidate that is mess that up for us, I am just begging all of the campaigns to --
>> I don't see how a candidate can mess it up?
>> well, don't go out there and campaign on a crowded tarmac with cars and people everywhere.
do not mess with that because it will cost us the location.
there is not room for everybody.
>> there may be new ones on board that may -- I am trying to lay it out.
you have to say, wait a minute, don't mess it up, what does she mean by that?
>> and I am going to ask you Commissioner to help me spread that word.
don't put the campaign on or near the property.
it is too confusing.
it is dangerous, there is traffic.
it can cause accidents.
the customers do not like it and they complain to the store, which means they come back to me and say we are having an unhappy experience because our customers are complaining.
if the customers are not happy, h-e-b has no incentive to have us there.
we are a guest in their home.
they do not have to do this for us.
so want all of the candidates to be aware of, this is a fragile situation here.
h-e-b is really gone out of their way to make this possible in a very closed, tight, busy retail location for us.
we are incredibly grateful to h-e-b but we have to cake of this fragile location.
discuss take care of this fragile location.
don't anybody go out there and make any trouble or cause any scenes because it will just cost us the location.
>> you spent a lot of time trying to work out all of those little issue areas and -- and so probably what -- what we can do is send out a letter to all candidates in our precincts I guess saying please.
>> anything you can do --
>> saying please don't mess with.
>> why don't we ask both of the coordinated campaigns to send letters to the candidates.
>> yes.
>> I think we need to do that.
>> I am sure when you are a candidate with only a small amount of money which is true for everybody this year.
it's, you know, hard to raise money.
it looks like fruitful territory to go over there and shake hands.
it will cost us if a candidate does that, so just don't --
>> could you outline or draft a letter that we might send to those campaigns?
>> I will do it again, yes, ma'am.
>> and the question I want to specifically ask, does that also relate to campaign signs in the parking lot?
because I know there have been problems with that in the past.
>> there are.
we would appreciate it if they would just find other placeses to advertise.
it is so crowded there and so dangerous to pedestrians.
it is just -- can you just pick another place to advertise your candidacy, it is not that doable at that particular crowded location.
thank you.
>> hopefully people will lay out the circumstances by example.
>> all of the candidates have been cooperative, it is when one breaks ranks that thinks they are special that causes the problems because then the other candidates that are being good don't feel like they are being treated fairly.
so unless all observe this for the good of all of us, it makes it problematic to make this delicate a location work, so good for h-e-b and try to show some concern for the welfare of everybody, even if you are a candidate who is out there really struggling and working hard to get your name known.
we understand.
we ask you to think of the good for everybody.
>> one of the ways -- will you do a draft for us?
>> I will be pappy to do one.
>> second.
>> all those in favor.
for those present, all four.
okay.
>> thank you so much.
>> thank you.
>> it is a beautiful day outside and happy new year.
>> happy new year.
>> absolutely.
happy new year.
thanks for all of your work.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> and he'll be back shortly.
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.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, January 5, 2010 2:30 PM
