Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Democratic Party of Collin County Elects New Chair


Shawn Stevens
On July 22, 2009 the Democratic Party of Collin County Executive Committee elected a new chairperson in special election.

The new chairperson, Shawn Stevens, a former assistant chair of the county party, was elected on the fifth round of balloting. Mr. Stevens received the most votes in the first ballot round and he picked up votes in each ballot round until he was only one vote away from the party chair position on the fourth ballot.


Marlene Byndon
Candidate Marlene Byndon, who is the current assistant chair of the county party, saw her vote totals decreased over the first four ballot rounds. After the vote tally was complete on ballot round four, Ms. Byndon announced that in spirit of party unity she was withdrawing her name from consideration. Ms. Byndon received a standing round of applause from the county precinct chairpersons in appreciation for her candidacy, positive campaign and enthusiasm for Democratic candidate victories in Collin County in future elections. Candidate Victor Manuel's vote tallies remain relatively steady through the first four rounds of Executive Committee balloting.

As soon as Mr. Robert Miller, temporary chairperson for the special election meeting, called the meeting to order three party chair candidates were nominated: Marlene Byndon, Shawn Stevens and Victor Manuel. After nominations were closed each of the candidates spoke on their own behalf and the candidates also received seconding speeching from three of their suporters. The short speeches delivered by each of the candidates and their supporters echoed the same message -- That working together Collin County Democrats can become a force in local, state and national politics.

During his remarks Mr. Stevens said,
"Democrats have been making great progress in Collin County, and together we can do even better by welcoming all Democrats that want to help the effort. Comparing 2008 to 2004, there were 20,000 more straight ticket Democratic voters in 2008, while the Republicans’ straight ticket votes were virtually unchanged. Also, the raw Democratic vote in Collin County went up by 40,000 votes, while the raw Republican vote went up by only 10,000, a 30,000 net gain for the Democrats, reducing the vote gap between the Democratic and Republican vote by around 17.5 points

Another fact is that the 2008 Democratic Collin County Convention was attended by about 4,000 people and is the most well attended event in the history of the Frisco Conference Center, the largest publicly available indoor venue in Collin County. Before that, 20,000 people took the time to show up at Democratic precinct conventions in neighborhoods across the county!

We want to do everything we can to help turn Texas blue, both in the statewide elections in 2010 for races like Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General, and in the next Presidential election in 2012. If there is a special election for Kay Bailey Hutchison's U.S. Senate seat in the near future, I will encourage Collin County Democrats to be fully engaged, as Collin County voters could be the deciding factor in a race with numerous candidates, putting a greater spotlight on Collin County Democrats, and increasing our momentum.

The Republican era of domination of Collin County is beginning to come to a close."
During the short campaign span, one of Mr. Stevens supporters said of Stevens,
"As a long-time Democratic activist, an attorney specializing in, among other things, election law and a former staffer in the Texas Legislature, he knows how the game of politics is played – from conducting local campaigns to influencing legislation and getting our delegates to the National Convention. In my opinion, he is one of our most experienced and knowledgeable activists.

Local politicos now recognize that we, and Shawn in particular, know election law and will insist that they follow it. In fact, on a number of occasions I’ve seen local Republican leaders and Elections Office staff automatically turn to Shawn for clarification of a fine point.

Likewise, Shawn has earned the respect of the leadership of the Texas Democratic Party, state officials, DNC members and others in the Democratic community on a statewide and national basis. They know him, they trust him and they value his opinion.

Shawn knows who to call for high-level help on political issues without having to look them up, and often knows them personally. His contacts have been extremely helpful in the operation of our Party, and have helped us raise significant amounts of money.

Shawn understands why increasing the Democratic vote in Collin County is critical on a statewide, and perhaps national, level. Because of our large population, a few more percentage points in our county can tip a statewide race blue.
Mr. Stevens, a fifth generation Texan and attorney at law, has been active in the Democratic Party for approximately two decades.

Mr. Stevens was the senior legislative assistant for State Representative Glen Maxey over two regular Texas legislative sessions and numerous special sessions during the early 1990's. During the fall of 2008 he was appointed by the Obama campaign to organize and provide support to election pollwatchers working in Collin County for the Obama and Rick Noriega campaigns.

Mr. Stevens served as Vice-Chair (Asst. County Chair) of the Democratic Party of Collin County for five years, from 2003 until mid-November 2008 and was also the county party's General Counsel. Mr. Stevens currently serves as Precinct Chair for precinct 115.

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Sunday, July 19, 2009

Consolidated Polling Centers Coming To Collin Co. Next Election Day?

In mid-July Collin Co. notified the Texas Secretary of State (SOS) that the county wants to be selected to join Texas' ongoing Vote Center trial program. The Collin County Elections Administrator notified the SOS that Collin County intends to submit a plan, by the August 15th application deadline date, to implement countywide Election Day Vote Centers this coming November, as authorized by the Texas legislature earlier this year. Under the provisions of this program there are many fewer than usual Election Day polling places, but each Election Day polling place acts like Early Voting locations where any Collin County voter can vote at any consolidated polling place in Collin County.
The Collin County Elections office proposed a similar plan in 2006, to participate in the "consolidated polling centers" pilot, by reducing the number of election day polling places from 135 to 30 for the November general election of that year. After both the Republican and Democratic Parties objected, that 2006 plan was scrapped. [Collin County Observer]
The Election Day "vote anywhere" feature of the "consolidated polling center" plan sounds like a good idea, but when Lubbock County tried a similar reduction of polling locations in the 2006 pilot program, there was a 25% reduction in voter participation in the most heavily minority precincts, a fact that was excluded from the report submitted by the county and the SOS to the Texas Legislature this year.

Late in the 2009 legislative session the Texas legislature passed HB719. HB719, which becomes effective on September 1, 2009, allows up to three counties with more than 100K in population and two counties with less than 100K in population to participate in a continuation of Texas' consolidated polling center experimental program. Lubbock will be one of the three larger population counties and Erath County will be one of smaller population counties in the program, as both counties have already participated in a pilot project to consolidate polling locations.

Bottom line, two additional larger counties and one smaller county will be selected by the Texas Secretary of State to expand the experimental program and Collin County is asking to be one of those larger counties allowed to join the program. Each county that is selected by the SOS to participate must report to the SOS with the results after each election trial, and the SOS itself must report to the Legislature, in January 2011, what the results of the experiment were.

HB719 as signed by the Governor had grafted into it, in the last week of the session, SB 1310 by Duncan, which was a stalled bill that included a provision to reduce the number of precinct polling places. For the first year, those counties that participate in the consolidated polling center program may eliminate up to 35% of the precinct polling places, and for the second year, they may eliminate up to 50% of the precinct polling places. (The House Elections Committee held a public hearing on SB 1310 on May 12, 2009, and the hearing on this bill begins at 47:28 on the video record that can be found here.)

Three officials from Lubbock County testified in favor of the bill, and none of them mentioned the Lubbock County Democratic Party's dissatisfaction with the Lubbock County experiment due what they characterized as the 25% reduction in turnout in minority precinct polling places, compared to a 12% reduction in Republican precinct polling places.

Luis Figeroa of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund testified in opposition to SB 1310 (and said they would change their position to neutral if the bill was limited to a pilot project), and Dustin Rynders of Advocacy, Inc. expressed support for having flexibility about where people could vote, but expressed caution that there is concern with actually closing precinct polling locations. Anita Privett of the League of Women Voters also expressed concerns about limiting the number of precinct polling places.

The SOS will, by August 28th, select the two additional larger counties and one smaller county to join the Vote Center Trial Program. The selected counties must then forward their Vote Center plans to the U.S. Dept. of Justice for pre-clearance under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1964 for their approval to proceed with the program expansion.

Many voters, especially low-income minority voters that cannot afford the newspaper, have a routine of going to their traditional neighborhood polling place without looking up anything in the paper about voting locations. Many elderly and low-income voters also often have difficulty reaching the consolidated polling centers, which are more distant from their homes than the traditional precinct polling places. DOJ pre-clearance is a major factor in this process, and will have ultimate say on whether a given consolidated polling center implementation plan will pass "Voting Rights Act" scrutiny.

Consolidating polling centers have resulted in long voter lines at the fewer in number consolidated polling centers in Denver and other cities. Studies have also shown that poorly planned consolidate polling center programs have resulting in long voter lines and lower voter turnout, especially among young and minority voters. [Collin County Observer]

According to an article in the Collin County Observer, Larimer County in Colorado is frequently cited as an example of how well countywide polling centers can work to both save money and increase voter participation in elections.
Larimer County has successfully reduced its number of election day polling places from 143 to 22, without suppressing voter turnout.

It accomplished this by careful planning and:
  • Voter education - several mailings to each registered voter listing the location of new polling locations.
  • Dedicated communications using T-1 network connections directly from each polling place to the county elections office.
  • Choosing polling locations that had an abundance of parking, frequently using large churches, whose parking lots are not in use on a Tuesday election day.
Collin County's 2006 plan, however:
  • Planned no mailings to voters
  • Had no dedicated communication, instead relying on existing and in some places dial-up connections.
  • Planned to use schools and government building that had little available parking.
Collin County's 2006 consolidated polling center plan had far too few locations, and too many were rural locations resulting in, for example, only one polling place for all of Frisco.

Elections are expensive. Efforts to cut election budgets can make consolidating voting precincts seem very attractive. However, the evidence suggests that before savings can be realized, investments must be made in voter notification, communications infrastructure, and polling place locations.

If the commissioners court does want to entertain the idea of reducing the number of polls by creating countywide super polls it, will need to create a bi-partisan committee to study all the implications and propose a budget and plan. Attempting to impose a quick-fix scheme, such as was done in 2006, will create controversy and likely result in a plan doomed to failure.
Perhaps taking some advice from the Collin County Observer, the Collin County Elections Administrator has asked the county commissioner's court to hold a public hearing meeting for Monday July 20th to take public comment on the consolidated polling center plan. "We will discuss processes utilized by Lubbock County in their successful pilot program elections. I will ask the [Collin County Commissioners] Court to select a site selection committee to assist with the evaluation and selection of the sites to be utilized on the November 3, 2009, Uniform Election Date," the Elections Administrator writes in her notice of the public hearing to local politicos.
The Collin County Observer posts a copy of the "notice" from the Texas Secretary of State concerning the countys' interest in forming "consolidate polling centers" on election day. The Observer has a few additional details as well - see Collin County Observer: Public hearing scheduled for Countwide Vote Center plan

The Blue Dog Approach To Bipartisanship With GOP

Some centrist blue dog members of the Democratic party on Capitol Hill are talking with Republican Congresspeople about building a coalition to oppose the Obama administration’s health care reforms, says a House Republican.

The Huffington Post reports that the DNC is targeting pro-health reform ads to 11 Congressional districts held by Democrats.

See video of ad below. . .

State Board of Education To Debate Sex And Drug Ed, Maybe

AUSTIN - State Board of Education member Patricia Hardy of Fort Worth said she plans to push for a requirement that students take a year of PE in courses that would also include instruction in health. Hardy said she believes a health component of PE should include such elements as sex education, parenting, drugs and alcohol use and nutrition.

Hardy said her proposal is designed to fill a void created by the 2009 Legislature, which passed new education standards that eliminated health instruction as a requirement for high school graduation. The former Castleberry High School teacher said she will present the recommendations when board members hold a work session later this year.

Read the rest of the story at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Extra Credit education blog.