By Gene Davis

Friday, 04 November 2011

WILLIAMSON COUNTY — A Williamson County voting precincts redistricting map approved by commissioners Sept. 27 would cause approximately 30 percent of county voters to have a new polling location after Jan. 1, 2012.

Meanwhile, the county is positioned to purchase up to 252 additional electronic voting machines at a discounted price that could lead to voting centers, which would let Williamson County residents vote at any polling location in the county.

The voting precincts redistricting map approved by county commissioners has 88 precincts, which is 14 fewer than the 102 current precincts.

When redrawing the voting precincts map, the Williamson County redistricting team said they focused on the following:

• Creating geographically compact precincts
• Preserving existing precinct boundaries when possible
• Reducing splits of local government entities
• Reducing splits of city single-member districts
• Moving boundary lines to major roads and natural features
• Keeping elected officials in their precincts
• Keeping election precincts within a minimum of 100 and maximum of 5,000 registered voters

Williamson County commissioners described the voting precincts redistricting map process as uncontroversial and the chairs of the Williamson County Democratic and Republican Parties said the map was fair. .

Map on hold

The voting precincts redistricting map was supposed to be sent to the U.S. Department of Justice on Oct. 1 for review and approval. However, a federal court order pushed back the deadline for precinct redistricting maps until pending litigation with the Texas House and Congressional redistricting maps is settled.

The Department of Justice blocked the proposed Texas House and Congressional redistricting maps because they might violate Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires that any redistricting map “not have a discriminatory purpose and will not have a discriminatory effect.”

House District 149, which is currently in Houston but redrawn to cover part of Williamson County, is among the new districts being reviewed as to whether they violate federal civil rights voting laws.

If the Texas House redistricting map is redrawn and changes are made to proposed Williamson County House districts, the county voting precincts redistricting map would have to be redrawn to accommodate the changes.

Redistricting usually happens to reflect new census data released every 10 years.

Voting centers

Williamson County Democratic Party Chair Brian Hamon said while he supports the new voting precinct lines, he worries about possible long lines of voters on Election Day in the larger precincts.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Valerie Covey said voting centers would help alleviate any potential long lines. The county is considering implementing voting centers, which would let Williamson County residents vote at any county polling location, for the May 2012 election. Voting centers could be implemented on an election-by-election basis depending on how the May election goes, Covey said.

Williamson County Elections Administrator Rick Barron said the county needs to purchase additional voting machines before commissioners consider whether to implement voting centers.

Williamson County commissioners were scheduled on Nov. 1—after Commmunity Impact Newspaper’s press deadline—to consider approving a purchase agreement with Wayne County, Ind., for up to 252 direct recording-electronic (DRE) voting machines for a fraction of the cost. DREs typically cost $1,600, but Wayne County was selling them for $500 each.

Williamson County would pay up to $126,000 for the voting machines under the purchase agreement.

Covey said voting centers would be strategically placed in areas that would encourage voting. The centers would help people who show up to the wrong polling location or don’t have time to go to their precinct-based polling location, she said.

Covey added that the voting centers should end up saving the county money in the long term because there would be fewer polling locations, which would require fewer employees to run.

Lubbock and Collin counties have implemented voting centers within the past six years. After five years, voting centers have cut the cost of implementing an election for Lubbock County by 30 percent, Barron said. A majority of the savings were achieved through a reduction in staff and paper ballots.

Collin County implemented voting centers in 2009 and has not yet saved money, Barron said in August.

The 2011–12 Williamson County budget allocated more than $530,000 for the purchase of additional voting machines.

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