Burnt Orange Report

Elections Back Home

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

Though the actual story is a few days old, I would like to pass along this short report in the SA Express News about events here in my home county of Gillespie here in Central Texas. Had we not gotten the said donation, one of the next steps would have been to take use of some election code that would have forced the local Republican Party to share election funds with us as they get about $10,000 I think.

Demo voters in Gillespie get help By Zeke MacCormack

A $2,000 donation should allow Gillespie County Democrats to comply with state election laws for the first time in seven years and spare party members the traditional commute to Fredericksburg to vote in the March primary. The county's minority party last used multiple polling sites in 1996, local officials said. Since then Democratic primary voting has occurred only at St. Joseph's Hall in Fredericksburg.

The Texas Election Code authorizes consolidation of primary polling places down to a minimum of one site in each county commissioner precinct, Jennifer Waisath of the Secretary of State's Office said Tuesday.

George Keller, the Democrat's county chairman since 2001, said he plans to re-establish polling sites in each of the four commissioners' precincts for the March 9 primary.

"We'll announce the locations in two or three weeks," said Keller, who expects the new location to improve voter turnout.

Fewer than 400 Democrats voted in the 2002 primary, he said, but the general election drew 2,000 votes by the party. "So it's pretty clear there are voters out there," he said.

Reduced state funding left Keller with just $1,200 to conduct his party's primary until last week, when state leaders, faced with frustrated party officials across Texas, announced that funding would be restored to prior levels with a $2.5 million allocation.

"That would take me back to $1,450, but I needed $3,400 more" to establish three new polling sites, Keller said.

He had planned to ask Gillespie County commissioners last Monday to allocate the funds, but a donor who wished to remain anonymous stepped forward on Friday with $2,000. An appreciative Keller plans to hold fund-raisers to make up the balance.

Tommie Skipper, a former Gillespie County Democratic chairman, said sufficient funding is only half the battle.

"It's hard to even get anybody to work at the polls," said Skipper, 72, of the hourly jobs with wages of $7 for trained staffers and $5.15 for first-time workers.

The Republican Party chair in Gillespie County could not be reached for comment.

Out of the 15 federal voting precincts we have, four will be filled with Precinct Chiars this next cycle, me being one of them. On top of that, 3 of them are for sure Dean supporters, and the fourth I believe is. I think that we will for once have an increased turnout, and our caucus attendance I think will be many times larger. In 2000 there was about 10 people total I believe. That's for all 15 precincts conventions combined. And to think that we can send 52 people to our County Convention!