Gov. Greg Abbott allows local officials to postpone May 2 elections due to COVID-19
With municipal elections less than two months away, Abbott issued a proclamation Wednesday allowing local officials to postpone their May 2 elections to Nov. 3.
Abbott’s announcement follows concerns with Texans flocking to the polls amid the coronavirus’ spread. However, the final decision on delaying May 2 elections will ultimately be up to local officials.
“I strongly encourage local election officials to take advantage of these waivers and postpone their elections until November,” Abbott said in a statement. “Right now, the state’s focus is responding to COVID-19 — including social distancing and avoiding large gatherings. By delaying this election, our local election officials can assist in that effort.”
Abbott suspended sections of the Texas Water Code and Texas Election Code under the authority the governor has during a state of disaster, and the Secretary of State’s Office sent an advisory to local election officials providing guidance for those who choose to do so.
In an email Wednesday night, Tarrant County Elections Administrator Heider Garcia said cities and political subdivisions will be the entities making those decisions.
“Tarrant County does not have the authority to postpone these elections, this is a decision each entity (city, ISD, etc.) has to make on their own,” Garcia wrote. “We will provide the necessary support to those that do not postpone.”
If local officials do choose to move municipal elections, the Secretary of State’s guidelines suggest that current elected officials whose seats were up on the May ballot will continue to hold office until after the postponed November election.
For example, the city of Mansfield is currently set to hold a May 2 special election to elect a new mayor due to Mansfield Mayor David Cook announcing his candidacy to represent District 96 in the Texas House.
Because Mansfield is a home-rule city, if the Mansfield City Council were to adopt a resolution to move the election to Nov. 3, Cook would still continue to serve as mayor — and be a candidate for the Texas House — until his successor is elected, Mansfield City Attorney E. Allen Taylor, Jr. said.
“The way the constitution works, is they never want the driver’s seat on the bus empty,” Taylor said. “Somebody has to be in that office.”
Some of the other local races set for May include four Arlington City Council seats and a proposition for a new quarter-cent sales and use tax, three Mansfield city council seats, the Burleson mayor and three city council seats and more.
Local subdivisions will be on a tight timeline to make a decision by, with early voting a month away and the need for ballots and polling places to be finalized.
“We’ve got to fish or cut bait,” Taylor said. “We’ve got to tell them: are we in, are we out for this election so they can decide how to structure the ballot.”
Abbott had signaled Tuesday that changes were on the horizon. After a conference call with Texas hospitals, Abbott had told reporters that while he has clear authority to oversee the May 26 runoff elections under Chapter 418 of Texas Government Code — which allows the governor to waive state laws and regulations during a state of disaster — he was evaluating his legal authority over the May 2 municipal elections.
On Monday, Abbott issued a proclamation delaying the special election to fill outgoing Sen. Kirk Watson’s District 14 seat to July 14. The election would ordinarily be held on May 2 — the same date municipal ones are currently scheduled for.
Calls for vote-by-mail
With the May 26 runoffs not far behind, a growing number of lawmakers and advocacy groups had urged state leaders to allow all Texans to vote-by-mail this May to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus.
While Abbott did not authorize that measure in Wednesday’s proclamation, when asked if expanding vote-by-mail was an option, he said Tuesday: “Everything’s on the table.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended canceling gatherings of 10 or more people for higher risk groups, and on Monday President Donald Trump urged people to avoid social gatherings of the same size.
The polls can be busy places on election day, and some voters saw hours-long waits this past Super Tuesday. With the number of confirmed cases on the rise, some are concerned showing up to the polls may jeopardize public health.
“We need to ensure that our fellow Texans’ health are not put at risk exercising their right to vote,” Rep. Michelle Beckly, a Democrat from Carrollton, said in a statement Monday. “Consequently, I have written to Secretary Hughs requesting that the eligibility requirements be waived for Texans to vote by mail in these two elections.”
In order to qualify to vote by mail, Texans must submit an application and be either 65 years or older, disabled, out of the county on election day and during in-person early voting or be eligible to vote but confined in jail.
“It’d be crazy to ask people to participate in in-person voting. And it would be crazy to ask election workers to run elections for in-person voting,” Rep. Chris Turner, a Democrat from Grand Prairie, said Tuesday. “And many of our election workers are senior citizens.”
The Texas Civil Rights Project and a slew of advocacy groups also urged the Secretary of State’s Office in a letter Tuesday to consider widespread eligibility to vote-by-mail for the November general election depending on how the pandemic progresses.
Five states have already delayed their respective presidential primaries due to the pandemic. And while a handful of states — like Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington — already send mailed ballots to all eligible voters, shifting Texas’ May elections to such a system would cause a flurry of logistical issues for election officials on the ground.
For Tarrant County’s May elections, “we’re talking about a million ballots that would have to go out,” Garcia, Tarrant County elections administrator, said Tuesday.
“You don’t just have a mail-in paper sheet sitting around and the capacity to print. And so a lot of things would have to be done,” Garcia said. “Let’s wait for their guidance to see what they say.”
In an effort to facilitate the upcoming May elections be held entirely by mail, Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa urged the Secretary of State’s Office to reallocate funds to assist local officials.
“In order for elections offices to obtain the supplies and otherwise manage the logistics of mailing ballots to every eligible voter for the May elections (the first of which are only seven weeks away), we must act quickly,” Hinojosa wrote in a Monday letter to the Secretary of State’s Office. “Furthermore, the state should reallocate the funds normally spent on other aspects of Election Day administration toward the printing and mailing of ballots to voters and providing a postage-paid envelope for each voter to return their ballot.”
The Republican Party of Texas was less outspoken in its call. The party’s Chairman James Dickey said in a statement Tuesday that they will be evaluating options in light of the public health concerns, and stressed that any changes “must be made with great care to defend the rights of voters and the full weight of every valid vote.”
“We are open to considerations and will speak with the Governor and his team about it. I am looking at one election at a time given the dynamic nature thus far in how federal, state and local governments have had to respond to Coronavirus,” Dickey said. “Changes made for the May 2 municipal election may not be necessary for the May 26 runoff election, for example.”
While some candidates have altered their in-person campaign events or said they will suspend soliciting donations in the face of the pandemic, it remains to be seen what action will be taken on May 26 runoff elections.
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 11:25 AM.
