08-08-11 (8-9 & 8-10) City Council Meeting including a Budget Workshop of La Porte City Council

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SB 100 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION POINTS This legislative session saw the passage of SB 100, which is Texas' answer to implementing the federally adopted Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act. It requires, among other things, the moving of various deadlines to enable elections administrators to meet the new, longer time periods necessary to accommodate military and overseas voters. Many Texas cities contract with their county for equipment and /or services; and La Porte does, as well. One of the main concerns with SB 100 is it provides that counties are no longer required to supply equipment or services to cities who conduct elections in May of even numbered years. SB 100 changes the primary runoff date to the fourth Tuesday in May, which means that, in even numbered years, Harris County will still be using its equipment for early voting in the runoff during the time period we would need equipment to conduct our May election. Because Harris County would be using their equipment, they won't have enough extra equipment for us or any other governmental entity to which they typically lease equipment. Cities have options in order to comply with implementing SB 100, and below are several options open to La Porte. Realistically, this is a lot of information to absorb, but I imagine you may only seriously consider either Option 1 or 2, with most of council leaning toward Option 2 — buying our own equipment. We have funds plugged into the new budget for equipment, if that's the route Council wishes to go. For our first option, La Porte can pass a resolution to change its general election date to the 2 nd Tuesday in November to coincide with Harris County elections. SB 100 allows for a holdover provision for incumbents who would have been up for election in May of 2012, 2013, and 2014. The City would be able to continue contracting with Harris County for election services and equipment. If the City is in a joint election with Harris County during November, the City would utilize Harris County's polling locations. One bonus to a joint election would be that La Porte voters could vote at any of the 30+ early voting polling locations around Harris County. The closest one to us is Harris County Annex #25 (a /k /a Kyle Chapman Building) on Spencer near Center Street. On election day, we would continue to have the seven County polling locations in our City. Costs for participating in a joint election with Harris County and other entities will generally be less than costs to hold our own election. For a typical City election, the cost for equipment for the City is approximately $5000 per election.... but less if the school district and college are in a joint election with us and can split expenses for equipment. The primary objections to holding joint elections with Harris County are that La Porte races would be at the end of the ballot (federal, state, county would come first); La Porte would be on a partisan ballot (would voting straight party make some voters decide to skip our ballot ?); and La Porte would not receive the unofficial results on election night until Harris County processes all La Porte precincts, which translates to a possible delay of several hours in reporting returns. 2. An option we have to keep our May election date is we can purchase our own equipment. This will be costly up front because we must buy enough equipment to outfit La Porte, the ISD and the college. This includes one early voting polling location, two election day polling locations — sometimes three depending on LPISD and the college — and backup equipment in case of failure.