Thread by @lacykwaller

At @hayscountygov Commissioners Court special polling place "workshop" to permit the deep public concerns to be heard prior to the CC vote tomorrow

County Judge Becerra opened the meeting by asking for civility and respect. He's called on League of Women Voters-Hays County to share their statement first, then Elections Administrator Jennifer Anderson will speak, then public comment will be taken

Judge Becerra also stated comments from those who did not sign up for public comment or want to speak again will be allowed to speak at the end

Jennifer Anderson stating the empty areas in eastern edge of county are because we don't have options. That's not true, multiple historical locations are being removed (Chapa, Uhland)

Anderson incorrectly stating these locations are "only for constitutional ammendments." That's also not true we have multiple city elections and school board in one jurisdiction.

1st public comment from Kyle resident calling out continue issues on east side Kyle, Wimberley having the same number as Kyle with it's rapidly exploding population

Same speaker calling out issues with church polling places, example of east side Kyle Eikon church location removing candidate signs, tight restrictions on signage

The CC room is packed, standing room only, I'm sitting on the floor

Speaker of UT College Dems, Pres College Dems of Texas(?) First to use the s-word, suppression. Brought up issues at Texas State last November, Hays GOP chair email last cycle outright encouraging voter suppression

Student at @txst: Texas State would be the largest university in the state with no on campus polling site

Call for 2nd campus polling location @txst, they warrant with their size, would reduce lines

Students shouldn't have to miss class to stand in lines

First use of "disenfranchisement of student vote" especially in Texas

Mayor of San Marcos Jane Hughson: corrected errors of Elections Admin, there are city elections. Inconsistencies between numerous agenda documents for tomorrow's CC

City Secretary of Kyle Jennifer Vetrano: asking for 2 additional Kyle area sites, Kyle City Hall & Hays CISD Admin for both early vote and election day

Another UT student: going over last years major voting access issues & lawsuit filed by @TXCivilRights & LWV-Hays Co against @hayscountygov due to multiple elections code violations

Wimberley resident: The unincorporated areas of Hays County larger than any city, 100,000 people. These areas are not being adequately considered and represented by those determining city locations

Kyle resident: why is Wimberley getting double the locations?

San Marcos resident & LWV member Linda Calvert: the study group that established sites seriously lacking representation & diversity, should be expanded, rural voice, disability groups, reps from Hispanic community

Sandra Tenorio, Buda Resident, served on the polling place study group as the only "community member" not representing a government entity: they focused on traffic patterns, serving the most voters

Said she looked herself and couldn't find locations. No mention of 2 east side sites removed at Chapa & Uhland

S Tenorio: there's a location left off list, HCISD Transportation Hub on Hwy 21 replacing Uhland Elementary

Says voters in pct 228, McCormick "priority" over those near Chapa because of size of precinct. 🙄 (Disclaimer: Chapa is my historical neighborhood polling location, this is my neighborhood and they deserve equitable access)

#itsnotallaboutnumbers

S Tenorio finished by asking for addition of Chapa, Hays CISD, and Kyle City Hall, and correction of site eastern Kyle area site in Uhland

Donna Haschke, @haysdemocrats Chair: succinctly summarizing her letter to the Commissioners & her belief that concerns raised are being addressed

SM resident: addressing access issues for those who do not have cars, no public transportation, non-ADA compliant sites, these voters are clearly not being considered in the "balance" and "rubric" referenced by the Elections Admin

Maxfield Baker, current SM city council candidate eloquently expressing concerns about equitable access in Hays County & asking for need for on campus polling place for LBJ student center at @txst

Brandon James, MOVE Texas: students @txst & students all over the nation are watching what's going on here

#NotTheAttentionWeWant

Catherine Wicker, immediate past precinct chair of 334, the precinct that encompasses @txst campus: why are we here again? LBJ student center is good location, not parking lot or stadium far campus edge during game season

@txst student, with MOVE Texas: "backsliding democracy...that's not cool, man"

No one really addressing hours long lines on campus November 2018. Should be adding locations not removing them

Daphne Tenorio, Kyle City Council member representing east Kyle: every election she's here pleading for voter access in east Kyle

D Tenorio: As soon as locations published phone blew up, decision on Kyle City Hall, city buildings, ISD buildings should be made, involve the elected bodies not city managers & ISD reps. KCC should have input, have city elections.

Councilmember Tenorio:

"Stop making me come here and beg for polling locations."

"Do your job."

🔥🔥🔥🔥

San Marcos resident: @txst polling site about more than students, largest employer, warrants 2nd location on west side of campus, gave several potential buildings, east side San Marcos growth not being addressed

Sam Brannon: going after 3 Republican Commissioners for supporting voter centers (which allow voting anywhere in county on election day) violate Texas GOP platform

Brannon calling out county for lack of transparency and public involvement in process. Places blame on EA Jennifer Anderson

Dr Ana Juarez, @txst faculty, member of TXST voting committee, east San Marcos resident, precinct chair for 120: her precinct very large, one of the most diverse and most marginalized parts of the city, poor infrastructure, severely disadvantaged by the county

Buda resident Matt Ocker: if your ideas are so bad you have to impede voting you should reevaluate, railing against the Hays county democrats for...lots of things, "being Jennifer Anderson's cheerleader" and not caring until too late & wanting "glory" now

Ocker aggressively going after EA Anderson, including years of complaints, crowd started shouting at increasing aggression, officer had to intervene yell "order in the court!"

Ocker Shouted down a second time, crowd yelling "order in the court"

Ocker to the crowd as he walked out "some of y'all need to stay in your lane"

Final statement from Linda Calvert on behalf of LWV: study group needs to more actively consider underserved communities, applauded student engagement on this issue, do not deter that, thanked everyone for showing up & so many passionate speakers

Recess then taking more comment

Official public comment over, now the commissioners will each have a chance to speak.

Taking a pause on Twitter, commish comments way too much, taking notes & will update when they're all finished speaking. Lots of good tidbits coming 😉

Okay I'm home, fed, and feeling a bit salty so let's close this out. Commissioner Comments! Highlights only because "some people" went on and on, and didn't make much sense. 🙄

First up Pct 4 Commish Walt Smith: a bunch of ridiculous comments, then "Why should I worry about" all these students and people in Kyle voting? What about my precinct 4 elderly voters who want to vote on campus?!

For real y'all. He kept going on about how all these people "in the Lime Kiln area" are telling him "well we'd love to vote on campus too." 👀

So he's very concerned, every vote counts y'all & everyone deserves "equal" access & campus is not "accessible" for curbside voting.

The basic takeaways (no surprises here) Smith

1) doesn't understand what "accessible" means (LBJ is a fully ADA compliant state building)

2) doesn't understand (or care about) EQUITY vs EQUALITY

3) doesn't care about marginalized communities

Maybe I should send him this? 🤔

In the end, after bringing up all sorts of "issues" with various sites, all kinds of objections to @txst LBJ Ctudent Center Smith clearly stated he supports a site on campus, adding polling locations, and supports voting centers

Next up was Precinct 3 Commish Lon Shell:

Thankful for voting centers, students & faculty from anywhere in the county can vote on campus this year, eliminates a lot of major issues last year. Said good campus gets 2 full weeks. Supports more transparency in selection process.

Shell, cont: call for standing polling site committee, need to start working on 2020 site selection now.

Shell on Wimberley: open to removing an e-day site, they're overrepresented & he's not concerned "you could put a polling location on the moon and Wimberley voters would find it" #Truth 😂

Shell also supports adding sites in Kyle, if have to add to Pct 3 to maintain ratio required by law it should be in high traffic area of San Marcos 300 boxes & toward I-35 as much as possible to serve more people & have better balance

Next Pct 2 Commish Mark Jones: some not so great statements, including being "surprised" @CISD_HAYS is "letting" schools be used 🙄 (HCISD got multiple shout outs for being very proactive on voting access, esp. relative to other ISDs)

Jones: Comments & concerns focused on Buda, ignore that pct 2 includes lots of Kyle 🙄 Nothing new there.

Finally Pct 1 Commish Debbie Inglesbe, her opening comments

"We must do better.
We can do better.
We will do better."

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