Travis County Commissioners Court

March 6, 2012 (Agenda)
Item 22

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Deece, what number is that election item?

>> 22.

>> > 22, receive update and take appropriate action on status of preparation for distribution of voter registration certificates to Travis County residents.

>> good morning, judge and members of the court, deece eckstein with intergovernmental relation.
I have with me dee lopez, decision director for voter registration at the tax office.
and last week dee gave you a presentation where she explained some of the delays that have happened with the distribution of new voter registration certificates.
those delays principally called by the districting morass we have been slogging through and the fact we did not know new voter precinct boundaries as a consequence of all that.
therefore could not send out new voter registration certificates.
what we know this week that we didn't know last week is that the courts have issued the new maps for the congressional state house and state senate district.
that was done Tuesday afternoon.
what we knew by Wednesday morning was that the boundary lines as regards to Travis County for all those maps were identical to the boundary lines passed by the legislature last summer.
this court in October adopted a new set of voting precinct boundaries based on the legislative maps.
so now what we have determined is that those voting precinct boundaries are fully compliant with all the new court ordered maps that the court is using now and has asked us to use for this election.
so the good news is the Commissioners court because of its foresight has already adopted and gotten pre-cleared by the department of justice voting precinct boundaries for these coming elections and we are -- the tax office, as dee can explain is ready to move forward and conducting elections and precinct boundaries.

>> we have always wanted to be able to use for 2012 elections one set of lines.
and in your foresight, as he mentioned, you did approve all of the election precincts, the county Commissioner, j.p., constable precincts, those were submitted to the justice department.
we received approval on November 15th.
we sort of sat on those maps until we got the final order and that just came last week.
we started some preliminary work on loading of the data to the voter registration system in time for the may 12th election as well as the may 29th primary.
certificates we hope should be in the mail the very first week of April.
early voting for the may 12th election starts April 30th, so as you can see the voters will have plenty of time or the mail system will have plenty of time to gets the certificates to the voters in time for the first day of early voting for the may 12th election.
in my opinion that would be the smoothes way to run the 2012 elections.
all working on the same database, same precinct lines.
voters have their certificates in plenty of time and thereby eliminating any voter confusion between elections.

>> let me ask this question.
I received an email.
I don't have it with me, but basically it came from

>> [inaudible], he was concerned about precinct 278 and he thought that should be merged with 214.
and -- for some clarity he thought it was an overlap or something in that particular area, so I don't know if you guys may have received that email.
i.

>> did not, sir.
I did not get an email from anybody.

>> brought it to my attention.
I'm just wondering -- I don't have it with me but wondering what that was basically about as far as that's concerned.
that's the only one I received thus far.

>> I think it involved two congressional districts.
if I remember correctly.

>> we did have a congressional district split 278.

>> 278 and -- okay.
yeah, 278 and he suggested that I think in his email that it would be good if you could merge 278 with 214.

>> and it did merge with 214.
278 was abolished.

>> hopefully mr. Stanley if he's listening will hear that.

>> if not, please send me the email and I'll directly talk to him.

>> we'll follow the email to you.

>> if any of you receive any emails about any discussion, forward them to me.
I will respond.
we've got information to give them feedback immediately.

>> thank you.

>> you're welcome.
any questions at all?

>> thank you for this crazy roller coaster ride.
you've been tremendous during it.

>> yes, it has been pretty crazy.

>> thanks to the staff as well.
I know the staff was up to their eye balls.

>> for residents who wonder when they will receive their new voter registration certificates, the answer is early April.

>> first week of April they will start being mailed, yes, sir.
it's about a two and a half to three week process because it's so many registered voters.
so we -- we hope to complete it all within a week or so in time for the early voting period.

>> so we don't have to do any line tweaking.

>> no, sir.
you've done all your work in October, thank goodness you did all your work in October, submitted to it the justice department, we got the pre-clearance letter and we haven't moved on it for obvious reasons, there's a lot of litigation, until this last week when we got the official court order, the official map and the secretary of state memo saying you can go ahead now.

>> what are the parties saying about appealing that decision?
mr. Eckstein.

>> I understand that there is some talk about that, judge, but I'm not advised to the latest statistic you was that.

>> mr. Reeferseed.

>> brief question is about the filing deadlines for candidates.
for those various Texas state legislature seats.
is that -- was that extended -- from what I understand it's through this week?

>> that's correct.
court order reopened the filing period as of last Friday and it extends it until this Friday.

>> okay.
this Friday.
and what is involved financially for doing that?
if you know offhand, to file for a seat on the Texas state legislature?

>> oh, I'm not advised.

>> okay.
can you give me a phone number to call on that?

>> filing -- filing is done at this level with the party.
so I can give you the information, mr. Reeferseed, for the --

>> 477-2500.

>> depends on which party.

>> depends on which party you are going to file.

>> in your case I suppose it would be the libertarian party.

>> well, perhaps.
I ran as a republican in the year 2000.

>> well then the republican party.
they handle the filing.

>> I'd be open to -- were you trying to share information with me.

>> I was asking you to call the democratic party, 477-7500.

>> 477-7500?

>> yes.

>> the party has real strict membership requirements now, mr. Reeferseed.
you may want to check your status with them.

>> [laughter]

>> I've been in many parties.

>> unless you have other questions, that's pretty much our presentation this morning.

>> thank you for coming out.
we are moving forward.

>> thank you all.
thank you, deece.

>> so no action required of us.

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