Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Early voting by personal appearance for the March 5 primary elections here will be conducted in the old county court-at-law courtroom.
A majority of county commissioners court members on Wednesday approved a request by County Clerk Teresa Esther Chapoy to use the courtroom following a lengthy and sometimes heated discussion of possible early voting sites, including the Del Rio Civic Center.
County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. announced the two agenda items dealing with the early voting site: discussion and possible action on an early voting site for primary elections and a request by Chapoy to use the old county court-at-law building at 207B E. Losoya St. for early voting from Feb. 20 through March 1, with setup scheduled to occur on Feb. 16.
Owens said he had included the first item, discussion and possible action on an early voting site, “because I was looking for other buildings.”
Owens said he spoke with the civic center manager and learned several rooms in the center were available during the early voting period, but noted on Feb. 23 and Feb. 24, candidates would have to move their signs and electioneering stations to the far east side of the civic center parking lot because of events already scheduled at the facility on those days.
“What if (early voting) were held here (in the old court-at-law courtroom)?” County Commissioner Pct. 4 Gustavo “Gus” Flores asked.
Owens replied using the courtroom for early voting wasn’t a problem for commissioners court, but added he didn’t think there would be sufficient room for the candidates putting up their electioneering stations and for all the voters to park.
“I think this room’s going to be too small. This area’s going to be too crowded to be able to utilize for this. If there’s any way we can make the civic center work, I think that’s where we need to be,” County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton said.
“This will be something the two (party) chairs and Ms. Chapoy, you need to have that discussion as to where you all would want it,” Owens said.
Chapoy asked to be recognized.
“Chapter 83 of the (Texas) Election Code. I gave you all each a copy says that in a primary the county clerk is the early voting clerk. Then, if you’ll turn your page over to Section 85, it says that the early voting polling place ‘is to be near the main business office of the county clerk,’ and then it goes on to say, ‘however, that commissioners can change that location,’ but it goes on to say that ‘this location needs to be as near as practicable to the business office of the county clerk,’ and that is for a reason.
“To begin with, you all spent half a million on election equipment, and it is only steps away from here. I get whatever I need if anything goes wrong, I can easily run over (to my office) and get what we need.
“It is not unusual for a person who has requested a mail-in ballot to come in and then decide they want to vote in person instead. So then they show up. Right here, I can go back (to my office), get the mail-in ballot application and show it to them, in case they didn’t really do it or something went on. That’s one of the reasons why,” Chapoy said.
Owens said, “Just to be perfectly clear: You’re the one in charge of this, and I know that, but I wanted to give my opinion. That’s why, when I start getting the phone calls and shit, I ain’t going to listen to them. I’m going to direct them to you.”
“I don’t mind being the fall guy,” Chapoy said.
“It’s not the fall guy, because if you’d set this thing up over there (at the civic center) when you should have, then we wouldn’t be doing this,” Owens shot back.
“Set it up over where?” Chapoy asked.
“The election, and even if you didn’t want to have it over there, it wasn’t possible without all these concessions, because we didn’t set it up. At the end of the day, ma’am, you’re the one in charge. Tell us what you want to do,” Owens said.
“The whole idea of the Election Code, and these subchapters that I read to you, is that it’s about the election, not the electioneering. And everything that I’m hearing is, ‘Oh, where are we going to set up? We want to be over here so my name can be the last one that is seen when I walk in there to cast my ballot.’ I cannot be concerned with that,” Chapoy said.
“We’re all on the same page that it’s about the voters,” Owens said.
“It’s about the voter and making it practicable to my office,” Chapoy replied.
She said she had also considered using space in the main courthouse, but added she would have had to coordinate that with County Court-at-Law Judge Sergio Gonzalez.
Owens said the decision to use the old county court-at-law would have to be made by commissioners court.
“You told me that you wanted to have it over there (in the main courthouse), for the record, and I said that I’d rather have it here because over there we still have to conduct business. Here, we can move commissioners court, and it’s not a problem,” Owens said.
“I appreciate that,” Chapoy said.
Owens noted Chapoy was contracted by both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party chairs to hold the election. He asked each of the party chairs, who were present at the meeting, to speak.
“We need a bigger place, because it’s going to be the primaries, and this place is too small,” Democratic Party Chair Rosalinda Hernandez called out.
“It’s not too small because we do not have Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other,” Chapoy said.
Hernandez came to the podium and told the court, “I think we should look for a bigger building because this is too small. This is going to be the primaries, and this is going to be a joint election between both parties.”
Flores said, “In the past, we have had many, many elections here in this room, and it worked out pretty good, I think. . . I think the election should be conducted in a county building.”
“Well, are you going to make the decision? I’m thinking about the voters,” Hernandez said.
“The role that the commissioners court will play is if we want to give up the room for this. Now, I believe, and you stop me if I’m wrong, Ms. Chapoy takes care of the elections. She’s been contracted. So it’s up to her where she wants to hold the election,” Owens said, glancing at County Attorney David Martinez.
“That’s correct,” Martinez agreed.
“So the part that we would be playing is, do we give her permission to use this room? . . . So you would like to have it somewhere else other than here because you believe we’re going to need the room for the voters,” Owens said to Hernandez.
“Considering that we have always had it in the civic center, and it’s spacious with a lot of room for everybody, and now not having it (there), I think we should have a bigger place than here,” Hernandez said.
Republican Party Chair Sharon Pettit agreed with her fellow chair.
“I also don’t like to have it here because we’re talking about a county-wide election. We’re talking about the county, trying to be processed through here. The voters and the workers, they would have the logistics of it, would be not good, I would think, where the handicapped would be, where the curbside would be, let alone where the candidates would be allowed to be,” Pettit said.
Pettit asked Chapoy if she had considered using the former Dirt Cheap store in La Villita Shopping Center.
“It has lots of room and it has lots of parking,” Pettit said.
Owens said he believed Chapoy needed to meet with the party chairs and then Chapoy could make a decision.
“At some point you’re going to need authority to use this room, and I think that’s where our duty lies, is to give her the authority to use the room,” Owens said.
“I’ve voiced my opinion, that I believe it should be at the civic center, but that’s just my opinion,” he added.
Owens also recognized County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton.
“I don’t see how you’re going to make this thing work in this building. I really, really don’t. I gotten quite a few phone calls already from candidates. A lot of people have printed their materials already and said they were going to be at the civic center and have had to redo them. I don’t consider this room feasible. I don’t consider the parking feasible. We’ve done them down here at the courthouse before, and it’s been a train wreck.
“I think the civic center is the best location. The candidates are going to have to agree to move their stuff (two) days. It is what it is, but I don’t consider this building appropriate for something of this size. We have a lot of people running. We have a lot of people who are going to be bringing a lot of voters in on this election, and it’s going to be very difficult to accomplish that task in this room. My vote is going to be to keep it at the civic center and figure out how to make it work,” Nettleton added.
The court also heard from Chapoy’s chief deputy of elections.
She told the court she had to have ballots printed and in the mail to military voters by 5 p.m. Saturday.
“We can’t meet the deadlines if we can’t decide where to have the polling place,” she told the court.
After she finished, Nettleton asked her why the county clerk’s office hadn’t made plans to use the civic center.
She replied she had “mentioned to” the civic center manager the county would need the building for primary elections when they used the building for the November constitutional amendment election and he had verbally agreed to let them use it.
“Did we request the use of the civic center officially?” Nettleton asked.
“Yes, but not in writing,” both Chapoy and her chief deputy replied.
“Let’s not throw rocks, because we all know there was a problem. There was some emails in October. There was no confirmation, and I don’t want to get into that. At the end of the day, there was a screw-up, but it is what it is. We are where we are today, so, in my opinion, we’ve voiced our opinion. I don’t think it (early voting) needs to be here (in this courtroom), but it’s not my decision. I think this court needs to take action to allow this facility to be used if that’s the decision that is made,” Owens replied.
Chapoy asked to speak again and told the court, “This is election law. It says it’s supposed to be ‘practicable’ to my department, not to the electioneering.”
“I understand, Ms. Chapoy, and I think we need to give you the right to let you use this facility, whether you make the decision to use it or not,” Owens said.
Chapoy also said she wanted to clarify that Republicans and Democrats will not be going to separate sides of a room to vote in the early voting site. She said the voter will select his or her party when they come in to vote and the ballot will indicate which primary the voter has selected. The voter will then cast his or her ballot using the electronic voting machine, then feed the completed ballot into the counting machine.
“It’s not a separation of Republicans over here and Democrats over there. They’re all going to be together because it’s all in the poll book and the programming,” Chapoy said.
After the discussion, Flores made the motion to allow Chapoy to use the old county court-at-law courtroom if necessary, with County Commissioner Pct. 1 Martin Wardlaw giving the second.
The motion passed 4-1, with Nettleton voting against it.
“I’m going to tell you why I’m voting against this. I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. I understand it’s her decision, but I think the civic center functions better for the people in this community, not the candidates, but the people,” Nettleton said.
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