1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Emergency Session 10 Friday, September 3, 2004 11 8:45 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: PAT TINLEY, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 24 WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 DAVE NICHOLSON, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X September 3, 2004 2 PAGE 3 1.1 Consider, discuss, and accept "Certification of Unopposed Candidates" and issue an Order declaring 4 the General Election Cancelled and the unopposed candidates elected 3 5 1.2 Consider and discuss ordering the General Election 6 as required by Section 3.004 and 3.005, Texas Election Code -- 7 --- Adjourned 12 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 On Friday, September 3, 2004, at 8:45 a.m., an emergency 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in the 3 Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, Kerrville, 4 Texas, and the following proceedings were had in open court: 5 P R O C E E D I N G S 6 (Commissioner Letz not present.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me call to order the 8 special emergency Commissioners Court meeting posted for 9 this time and date, Friday, September 3, 2004, at 8:45 a.m. 10 There were a couple of matters that had a very, very short 11 fuse that were called to the attention of the Court 12 yesterday which required this meeting to be posted, relative 13 to upcoming election matters. And, at this point, Item 1 is 14 consider, discuss, and accept certification of unopposed 15 candidates, and issue an order declaring the general 16 election canceled and the unopposed candidates elected. 17 Ms. Pieper, can you enlighten us on that, please? 18 MS. PIEPER: Yes, sir. This is a new law 19 that came into effect last legislative session, and their 20 methods are correct, but their procedures are wrong. So, 21 this is just -- we're going to have to go back and get this 22 bill corrected, because the law requires that y'all order an 23 election. However, with the law, the Unopposed Candidates 24 section, the law is as long as I fill out this form and file 25 it, then that automatically cancels the election. Anyway, 9-3-04 emg 4 1 so it's kind of odd. I talked to the Secretary of the State 2 yesterday, and -- and said I'm going to go ahead and present 3 mine to the Commissioners; I feel it should be their 4 decision and not mine. If we do this -- if y'all do an 5 order declaring the election canceled and the unopposed 6 candidates elected, that is just for the local candidates 7 only. And their names will still go on the ballot, but 8 there just will not be an oval for the voter to mark in that 9 candidate. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Would there be -- 11 would their names be in each precinct? 12 MS. PIEPER: Yes. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We're not talking 14 about grouping them on a separate page or anything like 15 that? 16 MS. PIEPER: At the bottom -- well, you start 17 out with a particular ballot order, with the president and 18 so forth down, and then the local candidates will be below 19 that. And -- and beside their name with their office, it 20 will have, "Unopposed candidate declared elected." So, the 21 name is still on the ballot; the voters will still see it. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: What fiscal or administrative 23 advantage do we gain by doing this? 24 MS. PIEPER: We will be able to save money by 25 doing this. 9-3-04 emg 5 1 JUDGE TINLEY: That's a fiscal advantage. 2 And what -- in what manner do we -- do we gain that? 3 MS. PIEPER: Well, because, rather than a 4 precinct name -- Commissioner Baldwin, instead of his name 5 going just on Precinct 1 ballots, he will go on every ballot 6 for every precinct, because I don't have to do what they 7 call formats, and make sure his just goes on Precinct 1 8 ballots. Therefore, when they are printing the ballots and 9 programming our chips for our machine, they don't have to go 10 in and key four different ones. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: So we save in programming 12 costs for how they format the machine that counts the 13 ballots and so forth? 14 MS. PIEPER: Plus the printing cost, because 15 they don't have to set up four different ballot styles on 16 that as well. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. You may want to move 18 back to Precinct 4. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. I'm going to try 20 to get -- do you have any control? Can you get my name on 21 the Bandera ballot? (Laughter.) 22 MS. PIEPER: No, just Kerr County. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do you believe that 24 this will, perhaps, cause confusion for voters? 25 MS. PIEPER: No. Most of the voters, their 9-3-04 emg 6 1 comments -- 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: In my precinct, if 3 he's on the ballot, it's going to cause confusion. 4 MS. PIEPER: No, it's going to state what his 5 office is. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I understand. 7 MS. PIEPER: And then most of the voters, 8 when they do comment -- not all of them do, but when they do 9 comment, they will ask me, "Do I have to mark this?" 10 They're unopposed; they're going to win anyway. 11 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: So, when I go to 12 vote in November, I'm going to get a ballot, and it's not 13 going to have the Sheriff on there as a candidate, or Rex 14 Emerson as a candidate? 15 MS. PIEPER: It will have them on there. 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Or Bob Terrill? 17 MS. PIEPER: It will have them on there. 18 There just will not be an oval. There will be a clause 19 right before that that these have been declared -- those 20 that's unopposed candidates have been declared elected. 21 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: What do you think of 22 that, Bob? 23 MR. TERRILL: It's certainly just all a new 24 concept to me, and I haven't -- I'm digesting. I prefer -- 25 I would prefer -- if I were having a long career in the 9-3-04 emg 7 1 office or something like that, I'd kind of prefer to have 2 people actually see it and consider it. But I don't know 3 what the difference in cost is or how much that would 4 outweigh the savings, but having the name where it's -- 5 someone actually has to look at it and consider that name on 6 the -- on the ballot. 7 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: So, my choice -- if 8 we don't do that, my choice would be just to not vote for 9 you; to leave -- I could leave that blank, and you would get 10 fewer votes than some other candidates, so that there is 11 a -- there is a vote-counting implication to not having the 12 oval there to check. Same with the Sheriff or Commissioner 13 Baldwin. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yeah. It's -- in 15 talking to Jannett about it, as long as the names are on 16 there and they're unopposed, I agree. And if it has out 17 there what office and, "Unopposed, declared elected," 18 wouldn't it save a lot on the tabulations? Even though 19 it's -- 20 MS. PIEPER: It will. 21 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: On reading that, 'cause 22 you don't have any of those local ones that you have to 23 actually, like they do every year, come in here and give the 24 count for. All you're going to have is your other ones, but 25 yet the local candidate's still on the ballot. So, it 9-3-04 emg 8 1 may -- besides the printing cost, and all the ballots can 2 look identical throughout the county. And then the -- 3 MS. PIEPER: Right. And we use the three-ply 4 NCR paper, and so when we're printing out all of our 5 reports, our reports will be shorter. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You're satisfied 7 this -- you're satisfied this satisfies the letter and 8 spirit of the law? 9 MS. PIEPER: Yes. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: What is the law on 11 write-in declarations? Is there a cutoff time? 12 MS. PIEPER: September the 8th, I believe. 13 (Commissioner Letz entered the courtroom.) 14 MS. PIEPER: September 8th is when the Judge 15 will have to certify to me that there are no write-in -- I 16 believe the 2nd is actually the deadline. I'd have to look 17 at my calendar. 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: But, beyond a 19 certain date, if someone decides to run against an unopposed 20 candidate, it's too late? 21 MS. PIEPER: Right, exactly. But, however, 22 should one file, then that would go on the ballot as such, 23 as long as they're filing in a timely manner. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What do you want, an 25 order? 9-3-04 emg 9 1 MS. PIEPER: Yes, an order declaring the 2 general election canceled and the unopposed candidates 3 elected. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Jannett, the general 5 election for local candidates? 6 MS. PIEPER: For local candidates, right. 7 Because the governor is the one that calls the election for 8 the state and federal, presidential. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't want there to 10 be any confusion that the national election is canceled. 11 MS. PIEPER: No. No. We will still have an 12 election here. 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Commissioner, these 14 names will appear on the ballot as elected. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: You already knew 17 that, okay. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'd like to make a 19 motion, whatever the -- the verbiage that the Clerk has 20 chosen. Do you want to repeat it so we can plug it into my 21 motion? 22 MS. PIEPER: Issue an order declaring the 23 general election for Kerr County local candidates canceled, 24 and the unopposed candidates elected. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's my motion. 9-3-04 emg 10 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'll second it. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded, as 3 stated. Any further questions or discussion? All in favor 4 of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Congratulations. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much. 11 Do I get any votes or not? (Laughter.) 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, you win zero to 13 zero. 14 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: If September 8th is 15 the deadline, there may still be somebody. 16 MS. PIEPER: Okay. Judge, we can pull the 17 next item, then. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: The next agenda item is to 19 consider and discuss ordering the general election, as 20 required by Section 3.004 and 3.005 of the Texas Election 21 Code. 22 MS. PIEPER: So that item can be pulled, 23 because we're not going to order the election. We just 24 canceled it. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. That was easy. 9-3-04 emg 11 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have a question, which 3 you could probably answer. How much money does this save? 4 MS. PIEPER: I haven't completely figured it 5 up, but as we were speaking earlier, it's going to save on 6 what they call ballot styles, because your name will go on 7 every ballot, not just Precinct 3. It will also save money 8 on programming of the chips, and then it will save money on 9 our reports that we do. We have that three-ply NCR paper, 10 which is real expensive, and our reports won't be near as 11 long. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: So, what you're telling me is, 14 by virtue of our action on Number 1, you don't need Item 15 Number 2 considered? 16 MS. PIEPER: That is correct. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. 18 MS. PIEPER: And, gentlemen, just for your 19 information, I am also contracting with Headwaters, so 20 they're going to pick up probably $2,500 or $3,000 of our 21 election expense, and that money will be placed in a 22 separate line item for election equipment. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Have they -- you don't 24 handle who -- isn't their filing deadline over? 25 MS. PIEPER: Yes, the filing deadline was 9-3-04 emg 12 1 over yesterday at 5 p.m. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Four candidates out 3 of Precinct 2. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else, gentlemen? 5 This meeting will stand adjourned. 6 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 8:59 a.m.) 7 - - - - - - - - - - 8 9 10 11 STATE OF TEXAS | 12 COUNTY OF KERR | 13 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 14 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 15 County Clerk of the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 16 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 17 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 3rd day of September, 18 2004. 19 20 21 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 22 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 23 Certified Shorthand Reporter 24 25 9-3-04 emg