As citizens of this state we have many opportunities. One of those is voting. Yet it is sad that many people don’t participate in the voting process. They create all kinds of excuses for not going to their polling place and end up depriving themselves of a basic freedom, the right to choose their political leaders.

 Barely half of the people who are eligible to vote actually show up. One of the reasons this may be is that people don’t know what to expect when they go into a voting location. Their fear of doing something wrong or looking foolish prevents them from trying something new or different. This lack of involvement then extends to their children who never get the chance to see their parents participating in elections. Eventually the freedoms we enjoy are removed not by an outsider but by our own inhibition.

This is a guide to those who want to break the cycle of indifference and become a decision maker in their community.

The first step to voting is registration. Voter registration uses your identity and residence to define the issues upon which you should vote. If a city asks it citizens to decide important issues and you live in the city, your registration allows you to vote. Registration also prevents someone outside the city from playing a part in your government. You must register at least 30 days prior to any election. A voter registration card is mailed as proof of registration. Take your card with you when you go to vote.

The second step is gathering information. Voting requires making a selection. To cast your vote you must know what is on the ballot. That is why information about the election is important. You should learn what offices are on the ballot and who the candidates are. If you know something about the office it is easier to decide which candidate has the best qualifications to hold the office. The more you learn about the candidates the easier it is to make up your mind as to which person will most closely reflect your values.

Information is located in many places. Candidates mail postcards and letters letting you know how they stand on the issues. The media write stories about the candidates and report on speeches made during the campaigns. Opposing candidates and political groups release information giving a different view of the people running for office. Campaigns support phone banks who contact the voters with suggestions. Your friends also have opinions on the people running for public office.

Step three requires that you schedule two events. The first thing you should schedule is time to make your decisions regarding the candidates and issues on the ballot. Setting a time gives you an opportunity to take all the information, understand its meanings and select the candidate or measure you will support. You should do this before you go to the polls. The other event to schedule is when you go to the polls.

Here you have a few options. For those 65 or over or for those who have a disability which prevents them from going to the polling place, you may request a ballot by mail. You may also request a ballot by mail if you will be away from the county during early voting and on Election Day. The rest of us will have to vote in person during early voting or on Election Day.

When you enter the polling location (early voting or Election Day) you must bring with you some form of identification. The simplest forms of identity are your voter registration card or your Texas Driver’s License or Texas Identification Card. Other forms of identification are picture ID’s from work or school which contain your residence address, letters from an official government agency with your residence address and blank checks with your residence address.

Your polling place is located within the election precinct where you reside. Voting may be in a school, a church, a volunteer fire station or even a residence. Election personnel will have a table with a list of registered voters. Your name should be on the list. A clerk will check your identification against the list and mark that you are voting. You will be asked to sign-in on the signature roster to prove you came into the polling location to vote. All of this is known as qualifying the voter and once you complete this step you will be directed to the voting machines.

In Victoria County we use electronic touch screen voting. The system is reliable and secure. A clerk will activate the terminal and demonstrate the proper method of voting. Press on the name of your candidate to vote. There may be several pages of offices and candidates and Texas law requires you go through every page. After you have made your selection Texas law requires that the terminal display a summary of your votes. Again there may be several pages of summary and you will be required to look at each page. Once you have completed your review you must press the red “VOTE” button to cast your vote. Up until the time you press the “VOTE” button you may change your mind about any selection made.

If you would like additional information on any topic discussed, please feel free to contact the Victoria County Elections office at 576-0124 during regular office hours.

The last day to register to vote for the 2008 Presidential Election is Monday, October 6, 2008. While that seems a long way off it is actually less than 45 days and there are too many distractions to wait until the last minute. To vote in this election you must be registered and your registration must reflect your current residency.

I’ve been told that almost 10% of the populace moves in a year’s time. When the Elections Office mails voter registration cards every two years at least 10% are returned as undeliverable. This is because the cards may not be forwarded to a new address. Your registration is tied to a physical address. If you no longer reside at the registered address you may not be allowed to vote in this election.

Check your voter registration status now. Locate your current voter registration card. It should be orange. Check the residence address on the card. It should be your home address or place of residency. If the current residence is different from your voter registration address, two problems present themselves.

First, you may not be able to vote for the proper candidates on the ballot. If you have moved from one county to another county you will not be allowed to vote in the new county or the old county. If you moved across the same county you may not have the same offices on the ballot. Your new residence could have a different county commissioner or constable.

Second, if you moved within the county you will be required to return to your old precinct polling location. This could have you driving to your old neighborhood. You might also end up driving across town trying to beat the closing of the polls.

Take the time now to check your registration status. It could save you lots of time and anguish come Election Day.

Over the weekend I saw the first political signs of the fall election season appear near prime intersections. They are an indication that the local campaigns are gearing up for the big election. Come November the Presidential Election will use unprecedented amounts of advertising on television, through the mail, over the phone and in newspapers and magazines. They are already using the Internet in inventive ways. Local candidates are getting in the game early by staking out key sign locations about town.

It used to be local candidates would wait until after Labor Day. Then a few years ago someone started putting their signs up during the Labor Day Weekend. Soon the signs were getting placed a couple of weeks before the holiday and now they are coming out more than a month before.

There is nothing wrong with the placement of the signs at this time. In fact guidelines for signage usually stipulate the signs be in place no longer than 90 days. Guess what? We are less than 90 days to the election.

Now before someone gets antsy to comment, I have seen the signs left over from the Primaries/Runoff and May/June Elections. I think they are just as much an eyesore as anyone else. The soon fade in our Texas sun to the point where the candidate may not be identifiable. Luckily for some candidates there have not been any major hurricanes through our area to give Mother Nature’s assistance in distribution of campaign materials. If nothing else, Mother Nature gives the same help to all candidates.

What the signs really portend is the approaching election and it will soon be the time to make your selections for public office. There a many things on the ballot besides the presidential/vice-presidential race. Federal offices include US Senator and US Representative. State offices include Railroad Commissioner, Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals Justices, Board of Education, State Representative, District Appeals Court Judges and District Judges. Locally the Sheriff and Tax Assessor Collector as well as Commissioner Precinct Nos. 1 & 3 as well as all four Constables will be on the ballot.

In addition Bloomington School District will have three trustees as well as a bond election on their ballot. Nursery School District will have two trustees. Meyersville School District will have three trustees and Quail Creek MUD will have a proposition on the ballot.

There will be lots of choices. Its not too late to start learning about your candidates now because the election is getting closer every day.

There are many ways for people to register to vote. You may visit the Elections Office and complete an application or we can mail you an application. You can renew your driver’s license or Texas Identification Card and request a voter registration application either when visiting the Driver’s License Office or online. You may be offered an application to register if you use one of the social service agencies of the state. You will get an application to register if you obtain your marriage license in this state.

You might think that would be enough but there are still people working and living in this county who are not registered to vote. So we have another way to get you on the voter registration rolls and that is through the efforts of volunteer deputy registrars.

The title says it all. A volunteer is appointed by the voter registrar to offer voter registration at any place the volunteer feels potential un-registered citizens might gather. It doesn’t make a difference whether there are two people, ten people, a hundred people or even just one person.

There are several requirements to becoming a volunteer deputy registrar. First you must complete and sign a certificate and the certificate must be co-signed by the voter registrar or one of their deputies. The volunteer must understand the requirements of voter registration and be able to assist individuals with correctly completing the voter registration application. The volunteer will provide a receipt to the registrant and deliver the completed application to the voter registrar within 5 days of its being submitted.

The deadline for registering to vote is 30 days prior to each election. If a volunteer accepts a voter registration application over the last days prior to the deadline, he or she must deliver the applications within 24 hours of the deadline.

If you would like to become a volunteer deputy registrar you can complete the certificate online at vctx.org/elections and follow the links through Voter Registration and Volunteer Deputy.

For more information contact the Victoria County Elections Office at 576-0124 or you mail your request to 111 N. Glass, Victoria, Texas 77901.

     Victoria County has more than 52,000 registered voters but some 7,500 of these people are designated “Suspense” voters. That’s almost 15% of the people registered in this county. Some of these people will show up on Election Day and wish to vote and may not get the chance to cast a ballot.

Voter registration has three main requirements. First you must be a U.S. Citizen, second you must be at least 18 years old and third you must be a resident of the county. The voter registration application requires each applicant to address these three issues. You must affirm that you are a citizen of the United States. You must give your date of birth. You must provide your current residence address within the county.

It is the residency requirement which may affect the voter’s status. Everyone provides their current place of residence on the date of registration but some people may have moved since their original registration. Changing residency requires you inform the voter registrar of the new address. This is not done through address changes with the postal service. It is not an automatic change when a driver’s license or identification card is updated. The change of voter registration must be made directly to the voter registrar.

The consequences of not updating your residency could be showing up at the wrong polling place. Under Texas law voting on Election Day must be done at your precinct polling location. Each polling location has a ballot specific to that voting precinct. Voters may vote only on those races and candidates to which they are entitled. A voter on suspense may not vote in their new district but must return to their old neighborhood. If you tried to do this right before the close of voting you may not have enough time to get back.

If you moved to another county since your original registration you could be listed in that county as a voter and were cancelled in Victoria County. Even if you have an orange card from Victoria County, cancellation of our registration would mean you would not be allowed to vote.

The easiest method to check your status is to review your voter registration card. The current card is orange and white and has an expiration date of 12-31-2009. New cards for 2008 where mailed last November. Last year’s yellow and white card is no longer valid. If you have an old card you should contact the voter registrar.

Another thing you must check is the residence address listed on your voter registration card. If your residence address has changed, even just across the street or down the block, you must inform the voter registrar.

There are many ways to update your voter registration information. If you have your current or old voter registration card you may use the back of the card to provide corrected information. Mail the card to the voter registrar. If you need to update your driver’s license or identity card you may also request that the voter registrar be informed of the changes. This is not an automatic notification and is performed only at your specific request.

You may contact the voter registrar by phone and request an application be sent to your current residence. Fill out the application and return it to the voter registrar no later than 30 days prior to the election.

The Victoria County Elections Office can be contacted at 576-0124 or you mail your request to 111 N. Glass, Victoria, Texas 77901.

I suspect one reason we have elections with low turnouts is that potential voters don’t like the choices on the ballot. A candidate may not be everything a voter is looking for in a public official. He or she may express one idea to which the voter agrees and yet think differently from the voter on other issues. This creates a choice for the citizen. Do I support the candidate, taking the good with the bad, or do I not vote?

Too often it seems people take the second option and not vote. This creates a problem in the democratic process. When too many people sit at home during an election the people elected have little public support. Even a 15% turnout for an election means the winning candidate may have less than one in ten people who voted for them. Said another way, ninety percent of the populace either voted for the opponent or didn’t vote at all. Sadly most of these didn’t vote at all. This produces an unusual problem for those in authority. If only one in ten supported their election, how can a public official make decisions that represent the majority?

In this scenario the numbers are over whelming. There will always be too many people who didn’t vote. Their not voting intimates that they don’t care. But we all know that is not case. Otherwise ninety percent of the people would be satisfied with the decisions made by public officials and we know this is not the case.

Every public official, and I include myself in this, must perform the duties of their position to the best of their abilities within the law. This is the main tenant of the oath of office, to “faithfully execute the duties of the office… of the State of Texas, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, so help me God.”

Voters need to realize anyone who runs for public office is just like them, a member of the community. They are not perfect people and can make mistakes or have shortcomings like the rest of us. You may expect more of your elected officials but you have to remember they are people too. This means they need your support by your vote during the election process. They also need continual evaluation of their job performance with regular reporting.

The regular reporting part is the hard part. It means each of you, as a member of the community, must contact your elected officials. You must tell them how they are doing and whether they must continue or change their direction.

The easy part should be voting. It requires your participation only once per term of office. We don’t have that many elections that you have to miss any elections so let’s all first try the easy step of voting. Then we can get on to the harder part of evaluation and reporting on a regular basis.  

Two thousand eight has been a great year for voting. The primary turnout of 30% meant more people were not only interested in the outcome but actually came to the polling place. A turnout like this has not happened in the last 25 years. The parties were overwhelmed with the participation of the electorate. It wasn’t something which couldn’t be handled but it was something which needed time and effort to sort out the details.

In May there was a tie. I know I keep harping on this but it doesn’t happen often enough not to make note of it when it does. Voters were interested in who would represent them on the school board. Normally this is a low turnout election but this time there was lots of interest.

Next we held the special election to resolve the tie. More voters came to vote in the special election than came to vote in the first election. They understood exactly how important it is to vote.

I wish we could get everyone who came to vote in March, April, May and June to talk with their friends and co-workers. I would ask them to explain why it was important for them to participate. I would ask them to tell everyone that selecting a candidate and then supporting that candidate with a vote is the responsible act of a good citizen. I would ask them to encourage the people they meet to select candidates to support and then go to the polls in November and act to support their choices.

The election held on Saturday, June 14, 2008 was an atypical election.

First off the reason for holding the election was a tie vote. As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve not had a tie vote in the last 60 plus years. There have been close votes and there have been elections where the vote outcome has changed in a recount. There have been some elections which were almost contested and there have been elections where the totals reported on election night did not survive the process of canvassing the election. But never a tie vote.

Secondly the turnout for the election was unusual in the more people voted during early voting than voted on election day. All of our elections since absentee or early voting began have seen an ever increasing number of voters participate in early voting. In the 2006 General Election we had nearly, but not quite, half the voters come in before election day.

To me the third event is the most amazing. More people turned out for a second election (runoff) than came in during the first election. Again that just doesn’t happen. The first elections usually have more contests and candidates as well as media coverage than second elections. Second elections normally have a turnout around 3%. That means only one person out of every thirty-three and a third people in the district This election had a turnout of 20.1%. That translates to one in five and is more than turn out for most school district elections. Last year the bond election only had 15%.

So I believe there are some congratulations and well done's which must be made.

Congratulations to the voters who came in. All elections are important but you made the extra effort to vote in this election. Some of the voters who came by for early voting or came into the polling places on election day couldn’t even vote because they did not live in the district. But they understood the importance and singularity of this election.

Congratulations to the candidates. Up to now we all knew there had to be winners and losers. You both changed that. The tie vote sparked a new idea in everyone’s mind, it is important to vote. And you both worked tirelessly to get the vote out in the second election.

Congratulations to my staff and all the election workers. None of us really knew what to expect during a special election to resolve a tie vote. You can plan and prepare but it really comes down to the participation of voters and being ready to offer a ballot. You did a good job with this very unusual election.

Everyone who works elections knows the importance of voting. We see everyday how small trends affect outcomes. The effort put forth by a candidate and their campaign or the events within the community all have bearing on voter turnout and selection.

The tendency over the last few years has been less involvement by voters in campaigns with a corresponding lower turnout at the ballot box. People just seem to be fed up with the ongoing bickering between factions.

Principally among these are the parties. While Democrats and Republicans talk a great deal about cooperation we see and hear more about divisiveness. I believe there are many instances of collaboration but these are not as good a story as some fight on the floor of the legislature. Consequently the fight gets coverage while the teamwork must happen in the background. Sometimes the parties are happier with the lack of attention because no one wants to be thought of as being too friendly to the other side.

Locally we are experiencing much of the same thing. Our election turnouts have been steadily decreasing. The primary and local elections have not attracted as many voters as they did in the past. Partly you can blame the state and national politics but you can also blame some of it on local events.

That is until this year.

This year the primary came in with a 30% turnout. That is double the amount of people who have been voting during primaries. People everywhere were excited about voting. They wanted to participate in the process. Our office fielded calls about where do they go and when do they show up and what do they do when they get there.

After the primary we kind of settled down to the old ways with a low turnout for the primary runoff and an average turnout for the May election. Things were unfortunately going to get back to normal. Then we had a tie vote.

The tie vote seems to have revitalized the voters. In the May election our first two days of early voting had only 121 voters or about 2/10ths of one percent of the voters eligible to vote. During the first two days of early voting for the June election we had 232 voters or more than 2% of the voters in the district. Besides the people who are eligible to vote we’ve also have a lot of people coming in who want to vote but don’t reside in the district.

The interest in this election is exciting and one of the reasons I believe we are seeing this transformation is because everyone now sees the importance of even one vote. Just one vote would have changed the outcome of the first election. Just one vote would mean we wouldn’t be conducting a second election with the associated costs of time, effort and money. Just one vote would mean the campaigns of our candidates would have been able to enjoy the first day of freedom for summer vacation. Just one vote.

If you live in Victoria ISD Single Member Trustee District No. 5 don’t be the one who says, “I was too busy to go vote.” Instead be the one who can say, “I voted in an historical election.”

I was surprised by a question asked of me last week. A citizen wanted to know how much extra it would cost to be open on Saturday and Sunday for the Special Election caused by the tie-vote. I told them it would cost more but not really very much and I wasn’t sure of the exact figure. Later I heard from several people who believed the candidates should pay for the election. The candidates seemed to have enough money in their campaign funds and since the election was only for these two individuals, why shouldn’t they pay for it.

In thinking about this a little more it puzzles me why there is a double set of standards. The May Election is required by law but so is the June Special Election. No one seemed concerned about the cost of holding the May Election. I think this is because people understand the necessity of holding an election for public officials. But somehow they don’t see the same necessity for holding the Special Election.

The Texas Election Code has provisions for most issues related to elections. A tie vote creates a specific set of requirements and the principle obligation is for the school board to call another election. Those most concerned with cost wanted the candidates to cast lots or withdraw. Although casting lots or withdrawing is a possibility in the code, it is not required nor can it be coerced. In fact trying to force someone to withdraw from an election is against the law.

The supporters of both candidates have worked many hours on the campaigns. There were 581 people who voted for Mrs. Keeling and 581 people who voted for Dr. Jaynes. All the residents of the Trustee District No. 5 were entitled to vote and for those who participated in May you were part of an historic event.

So now we have a second election. Yes it will cost the school district extra money. But when do we stop holding elections because of the expense?