Municipalities must decide on voting dates
LAKEWAY — Small municipalities surrounding Lake Travis will have to decide before month’s end whether to change the month that they hold their general elections next year.
The Lake Travis school district, the cities of Lakeway and Bee Cave and the villages of The Hills and Briarcliff can either keep their elections in May or move them to November.
Staying with May would cause higher and unpredictable costs, officials said, but moving to November could allow state and national elections to overshadow local races and referendums.
“These entities and the school district want to be efficient with taxpayer money, but they also want to do what’s right for constituents as well and have the most educated voters out there,” said Johnny Hill, Lake Travis school district assistant superintendent for business and financial services.
Because of changes in the law, Travis County — which usually contracts with the municipalities to provide voting machines — will significantly increase the costs to municipalities unless elections are moved to November.
The municipalities are leaning toward staying in May, Hill said, but must finalize their decision by Dec. 31.
“It’s a big concern for local entities that their agenda items on (November) elections would be diminished,” he said. “Once you lump them with big-ticket items, all of a sudden, local items become very overshadowed. We would be leaving it to these folks that have no idea what they’re voting for. What you want is as many people to vote as possible, people who understand what they are voting for and who.”
If elections were moved to November, Hill said, the costs would remain what they are now – roughly $8,000 to $10,000. County officials have said that they could continue to provide elections for the municipalities during May, but cautioned that it would cost five to 10 times as much.
The cities, villages and the school district have met and consulted with each other to see where each municipality stands, cognizant that costs would be lower for each if they all stuck together on an election date.
There is also a third option — don’t contract with the county at all, and instead purchase voting equipment themselves.
There would be a considerable initial investment of $100,000 to $105,000, after which yearly costs would be $12,000 to $15,000 if the number of voting locations were decreased from 11 to five, officials said.