by BRAD ROLLINS
The city of Buda is moving its municipal election to November from May in response to changes in state law that also have the city of Kyle and Hays CISD scrambling to buy electronic voting machines.
Senate Bill 100, passed by the Legislature this spring, requires the major parties to hold primary runoffs on the third or fourth Tuesday in May, instead of sometime in April. The state made the changes in response to the federal 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act which requires states to get ballots to military and overseas voters at least 45 days before a federal election, including party primary elections and runoff elections.
Because Buda and Kyle councils and the Hays school board traditionally hold their elections on the first Saturday in May, voting machines cannot be cleared of data in time for the start of early voting in a runoff election later that same month.
Hays County Elections Administrator Joyce Cowan said she can’t prepare the machines for a new election until the old ones have been canvassed and, consequently, she can’t guarantee county voting equipment will be available to cities and school districts in even-numbered years when federal elections are held.
“We can’t just commit to doing [city and school board elections] and taking on more than we can physically handle,” Cowan said. “If the city or school district buy the equipment to conduct their own elections, we will be able to administer it for them.”
On Tuesday, the Buda City Council voted to forgo spending $13,368 to outfit a single polling location with the barest amount of equipment required by federal law. Instead the Buda council voted unanimously to move the municipal elections to November. Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Tenorio said she preferred the November elections because they would save the cost of purchasing voting machines and the timing would increase voter participation during state and national election cycles.
“I agree,” said fellow council member Cathy Chilcote. “I think November gives us flexibility as we grow.”
Down the road in Kyle, council members have shown little interest in changing their election date, which is established by the city charter as the first Saturday in May. Instead, city leaders voted for a joint election put together by Hays CISD administrators.
The cheapest version of the plan will cost Kyle $24,827 for its share of equipment for three polling locations on Election Day — City Hall, the Hays CISD Performing Arts Center and Tobias Elementary School — and early voting at City Hall. The school district’s share of those locations, plus polling places in Buda and Driftwood, would be $66,843.
