1 1 2 3 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT 4 Special Session 5 Monday, November 20, 2023 6 9:00 a.m. 7 Commissioners' Courtroom 8 Kerr County Courthouse 9 Kerrville, Texas 78028 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: ROB KELLY, Kerr County Judge ANNE OVERBY, Commissioner Precinct 1 24 RICH PACES, Commissioner Precinct 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Precinct 3 25 2 1 I-N-D-E-X 2 NO. PAGE 3 1.1 Canvass the Official Election Results for 3 the November 7, 2023 Constitutional Amendment 4 Election as per TEC #67. 5 *** Adjournment. 11 6 *** Reporter's Certificate. 12 7 * * * * * * 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 JUDGE KELLY: Court will come to order. 2 This is Monday, November the 20th, 2023, 9 o'clock in 3 the morning. The Kerr County Commissioners' Court is in 4 session. We have a special agenda today, which is 1.1 5 canvass the official election results for the November 6 7, 2023 Constitutional Amendment Election as required by 7 law. Mr. Reeves. 8 Is this the last time we're going to see you 9 here in this capacity? 10 MR. REEVES: Yes, Sir. 11 Good morning, Commissioners, Judge. Before 12 you are the official results from the November 7, 2023 13 constitutional amendment election. At this time I 14 respectfully request the Court to read into the record 15 the totals for each Proposition, which you'll find on 16 the right hand side of the page in the gray. 17 Please read those voting for, those voting 18 against, undervotes and overvotes into the record. 19 Y'all can decide how you want to divide up the 14. 20 JUDGE KELLY: Well, I've got four pages. 21 How about we divide them that way. I'll read the 22 first -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We got one. 24 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: We all got one. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Then second, third, 4 1 fourth. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I have two of them. 3 JUDGE KELLY: The result of the 4 constitutional amendment election for Proposition 1 is 5 6,898 for, and 1,330 against for a total of 8,228. Do 6 we need to read the percentages? 7 MR. REEVES: No, Sir. But do include the 8 undervotes and overvotes. 9 JUDGE KELLY: With 65 undervotes and 3 10 overvotes. 11 Proposition Number 2, 4,288 for, 3,789 12 against for a total of 8,077, with 210 undervotes and 9 13 overvotes. 14 Proposition Number 3, 6,344 votes for, 1,787 15 vote against, 148 undervotes, and 17 overvotes. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The total. 17 JUDGE KELLY: The total is 8,131. 18 And then we'll move on to proposition number 19 4, which is -- for is 7,023 votes, and against is 1,171 20 for a total of 8,194 votes. 100 undervotes and 2 21 overvotes. 22 Commissioner Overby. 23 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: All right. 24 Proposition number 5. Voting for were 4,038 votes, 25 against was 4,043 votes for a total of 8,081 votes, with 5 1 209 undervotes and 6 overvotes. 2 On proposition number 6, a total of 5,543 3 for, 2,573 against for a total of 8,116 with 174 4 undervotes and 6 overvotes. 5 On Proposition number 7, a total of 4,903 6 for, 3,230 against, with a total cast of 8,133. 151 7 undervotes, 12 overvotes. 8 And on Proposition number 8, a total of 9 4,622 voting for, 3,483 against, for a total vote count 10 of 8,105 with 188 undervotes, and 3 overvotes. 11 COMMISSIONER PACES: Proposition 9, we had 12 6,063 votes for, 2,137 votes against, for a total of 13 8,200 votes. We had 94 undervotes, and 2 overvotes. 14 For Proposition 10, we had 3,706 votes for, 15 4,358 votes against, for a total of 8,064 votes. We 16 also had 224 undervotes, and 8 overvotes. 17 For Proposition 11, we had 3,985 votes for, 18 3,839 votes against, for a total of 7,824 votes total. 19 We had 465 undervotes and 7 overvotes. 20 Proposition 12, we had 3,483 votes for, 21 4,020 votes against, bringing a total of 7,503 votes. 22 We had 780 undervotes and 13 overvotes. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: For Proposition 13, we 24 had 2,727 for, 5,326 against, for a total of 8,053 25 votes. 229 undervotes and 14 overvotes. 6 1 And Proposition 14, 5,354 for, 2,792 2 against, for a total of 8,146 votes, with 146 undervotes 3 and 4 overvotes. 4 MR. REEVES: Judge, you should have before 5 you certain pages that will now be signed, and if the 6 Court will approve what has been read into the record. 7 JUDGE KELLY: Okay. Is there a motion to 8 approve the votes -- the vote count as presented? 9 COMMISSIONER OVERBY: I make a motion to 10 approve the vote as presented. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 12 JUDGE KELLY: Got a motion and second. Any 13 discussion? 14 COMMISSIONER PACES: Just a few questions if 15 I could, Bob. 16 Were there any problems noted during the 17 election? 18 MR. REEVES: No problems out of the 19 ordinary. You can't elect a dogcatcher without having a 20 few problems. But nothing out of the ordinary. 21 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. And has the hand 22 count, you know, prescribed by the Secretary of State, 23 has that been completed? 24 MR. REEVES: The partial manual recount, is 25 that complete, Miss Alford? 7 1 MS. ALFORD: That is correct. 2 MR. REEVES: That has been completed. 3 COMMISSIONER PACES: Were there any 4 discrepancies? 5 MS. ALFORD: No, no. 6 MR. REEVES: No discrepancies. 7 COMMISSIONER PACES: And what method was 8 used for that hand count? 9 MR. REEVES: Tally. 10 COMMISSIONER PACES: But it wasn't the 11 Chapter 65 version with -- 12 MR. REEVES: As required by law -- 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: It varies depending on 14 what's being done, just like the recount is different 15 from Chapter -- 16 MR. REEVES: We pull the ballots out. Prop 17 1 for, and put a tally mark. Prop 2 for, we put a tally 18 mark, and then compare them back. 19 COMMISSIONER PACES: I was more interested 20 in just knowing how many markers. One caller, two 21 markers, one caller three markers? 22 MS. ALFORD: One caller and we had three of 23 them tally. 24 COMMISSIONER PACES: Okay. Very good. 25 JUDGE KELLY: Any other questions? Any 8 1 other discussion? Those in favor say aye. Opposed? 2 Unanimous. Anything else? 3 This is a point of privilege call. Miss 4 Vela to the podium, please. No; the podium. 5 MS. VELA: To the podium, sorry. I've never 6 been here before. 7 JUDGE KELLY: I know you've never been here 8 before. This is Denise Vela, and she is the Deputy 9 County Clerk in charge of the Chief Election Clerk, is 10 that correct? 11 MR. COLLUM: Yes, Sir. She's our Senior 12 Elections Clerk. 13 JUDGE KELLY: And I had the pleasure of 14 having a casual visit with you after the election, and 15 you noted that you had conversations with various 16 representatives from the Secretary of State that were 17 there to oversee our election. 18 MS. VELA: I remember yes, Sir. 19 JUDGE KELLY: And if you could, briefly 20 share some of the remarks that you heard from the 21 Secretary of State representative. 22 MS. VELA: She was very impressed with both 23 offices, the Tax Office and the County Clerk's Office on 24 how well we worked together. And she basically was -- 25 went everywhere with us, and she told me and the people 9 1 that were in there that this was one of the best 2 counties that she's worked with, that we worked so well 3 together. So I mean we told her it was our first, so -- 4 and it was awesome. It was really awesome. She was 5 awesome. 6 JUDGE KELLY: And describe briefly the 7 extent of the oversight that the Secretary of State's 8 Office did in this election? 9 MS. VELA: What -- 10 JUDGE KELLY: What all did they do? 11 MS. VELA: She was here to, I guess, observe 12 and make sure that we were I guess following everything 13 that they're supposed to look for from the ballot board 14 to how everything was set up, how easily everything was 15 happening. She gave us pointers on little things that 16 she might have seen, but nothing -- 17 JUDGE KELLY: About how many people came, 18 and what all did they do? 19 MS. VELA: There was, let's see, maybe 8 20 from our office, and then 8 from the tax office. And we 21 shadowed the tax office the whole time. They were the 22 ones basically in charge of it. So there's different 23 sections where the election judges and the election 24 clerks sat, bring everything back when we were at the 25 center. And they just -- we had different duties that 10 1 we do. 2 JUDGE KELLY: Specifically what I'm asking 3 about is the number of representatives from the 4 Secretary of State's Office that came and over what 5 period of time, and what all did they do. How thorough 6 was their review? 7 MS. VELA: I only saw one lady. It was just 8 one lady that -- but she want to every Precinct to make 9 sure that everything was going -- actually, I did meet 10 an SOS person, right, there was one at -- 11 (Ms. Alford moving head in affirmative 12 manner.) 13 COMMISSIONER PACES: Precinct 2. 14 MS. VELA: -- Precinct 2. That he came in. 15 And then there was an SOS person that came during early 16 voting. And they just observed how everything was. 17 They just, I guess, made sure that we had everything set 18 up the way it needed to be set up to coordinate to the 19 State. And then the one on election day, she just 20 observed everything we did, so -- 21 JUDGE KELLY: I just wanted you to share so 22 the public can hear how well the elections went, and the 23 grade that we got from the Secretary of State, and to 24 reassure the people that our elections are truly in good 25 hands. Thank you. 11 1 MS. VELA: Yes, Sir. 2 JUDGE KELLY: You may be excused. 3 MS. VELA: Thank you, Sir. 4 JUDGE KELLY: Any other business? Okay. 5 With that, we'll be adjourned. 6 * * * * * * 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 12 1 STATE OF TEXAS * 2 COUNTY OF KERR * 3 I, DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD, Certified Shorthand 4 Reporter in and for the State of Texas, and Official 5 Court Reporter in and for Kerr County, do hereby certify 6 that the above and foregoing pages contain and comprise 7 a true and correct transcription of the proceedings had 8 in the above-entitled Special Commissioners' Court. 9 Dated this the 20th day of November, A.D. 10 2023. 11 12 /s/DEBRA ELLEN GIFFORD Certified Shorthand Reporter 13 No. 953 Expiration Date 04/30/2025 14 * * * * * * 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25