Despite efforts by state lawmakers to avoid a confusing election schedule in 2012, that may be exactly what many Texas voters face next year anyway.
Gov. Rick Perry signed a bill this summer tweaking the election laws in order to comply with new federal rules designed to make it easier for members of the military to vote.A key side-effect of the measure is that it pushes back runoffs from next year's March 6 primaries into May, when cities, school districts and other local entities hold their elections. Early voting for primary runoffs would begin just days after the May 12 local elections.Supporters of the legislative action predicted the new rules would prompt cities, school districts and other local entities to move their elections to next November or to the following May.Instead, many cities and school districts are scrambling to hold on to their May 12 local election date.If it works out, next year's election calendar could be confusing for many voters.In the span of three months, some voters would face a primary, followed by city and school district elections, followed by primary runoffs, followed by city and school district runoffs. And then, of course, the statewide and national general election next November."We have an overlapping election cycles and I am very concerned that voters are going to be confused," Tarrant County Republican Party Chair Stephanie Klick said. "With that confusion, it may impact turnout.""There's going to be a lot of confusion," agreed Tarrant County Democratic Chair Steve Maxwell. "You've got three elections that voters are showing up for in the space of about eight weeks."The debate in the Legislature briefly grew tense this year over how to fix the state's election schedule so that military and overseas voters could get 45 days to fill out their ballot as Congress has mandated. One area of concern was how to handle runoff races, which are typically about five weeks after an election. Under the new federal law, that's not enough time between races.Lawmakers ultimately decided to keep the primary on the first Tuesday in March, in part out of fear that moving it later would erase any chance of the state being relevant in next year's presidential primary. That pushes primary runoffs to May 22.Bad optionsIn Tarrant County, cities including Arlington, Haltom City and Keller and school districts including the Fort Worth district typically hold May in even-numbered years. Tarrant County Elections Administrator Steve Raborn originally told those entities he didn't have enough voting equipment to handle both the nonpartisan elections and the primary runoffs in May.Almost immediately, officials with several local entities made clear they didn't like their options. Moving elections to November meant placing nonpartisan and partisan races on the same ballot, a shift that some worry may negatively impact the tone of the nonpartisan races.Holding elections only in May of odd-numbered years, as cities including Fort Worth currently do, also poses problems, especially for entities that stagger their council terms so that only some seats are on the ballot each year.Tarrant County Commissioner Gary Fickes said he's heard from nearly every city in his northeast Tarrant precinct and they are all against moving their election dates."I see some real problems with forcing our government entities to change their elections," Fickes said at a recent meeting.The Austin City Council has hired an outside consultant to determine how much it would cost the city to still hold their election next May, Austin City Clerk Shirley Gentry said."Austin is the largest city in Texas that finds itself in a very awkward position because our charter specifies...a May election," Gentry said. "There are all kinds of attorneys in the state that are debating whether the Legislature had the authority to change cities' charters."Bedford Mayor Jim Story recently sent a letter signed by himself and the city's council members to local precinct chairs warning that any election date change would "be unnecessarily disruptive to our citizens and may change the nature of our city."Sharing equipmentBedford officials are among those pushing local Democrats and Republicans to agree to hold their primary runoffs jointly which would require fewer voting machines, leaving enough left for cities and school districts to use for their May elections."If they would share the voting equipment in the runoff, that would solve our equipment problems," Raborn said.Though Democrats and Republicans in other parts of the state hold their primaries jointly, the Tarrant County Democratic Party has resisted the idea for years. Maxwell said some Democratic precinct chairs are worried about voter intimidation from Republican election workers. Klick said such a fear is unfounded and pointed out that election workers from both parties work together during general elections.Maxwell said his party leaders may agree to jointly holding the primary runoff but that it would make more sense and save taxpayer money if cities and school districts just move their elections.Even if both parties agree to hold their runoffs jointly, Raborn said at a recent meeting that the election schedule will still prove challenging."This kind of thing is a little bit scary where you have all these elections are on top of each other...It is a very difficult situation to accomplish," Raborn said.Aman Batheja, 817-390-7695Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
