The Hays County Commissioners Court unanimously approved the results of the County and Precinct races for the Nov. 3 General Election after elections administrator Jennifer Anderson reported the results of the counted ballots.
According to the Texas Election Code, the official result of an election that is not canvassed at the state level is determined from the canvass of the precinct returns conducted by the local canvassing authority.
Hays County Commissioners canvassed the results of the countywide and precinct races for County Court at Law #3; County Sheriff; County Tax Assessor Collector; Commissioner, Pct. 1; Commissioner, Pct. 3; Justice of Peace, Pct. 1, Pl. 1; Constable Pct. 1; Constable Pct. 2; Constable, Pct. 3; Constable Pct. 4; and Constable Pct. 5.
Anderson reported 71.03% of registered voters casted a ballot; with 109,107 ballots, it was the highest voter turnout since 1992.
Nearly 100,000 of those ballots came in during the three week early voting period. Anderson said the early voting period was very productive and that it was clear people took advantage of it.
There were 12,548 ballots cast by mail, 638 limited ballots and two emergency ballots. Limited ballots are for eligible registered voters who have moved to a new county and cannot register to vote in the new county in time. Emergency ballots are for voters in hospitals or out of the county and will not be back in time to vote due to medical circumstances.
There were 2,113 provisional ballots cast and of those, 434 were accepted.
There was a last minute push for voters who submitted provisional ballots to “cure” their ballots before 4 p.m. Monday to ensure their ballots counted.
Anderson explained a provisional ballot could only be cured if someone voted with no ID at all. She said there was only one of those types of provisional ballots in this election. “Most of our provisionals were due to voters that had requested mail ballots and then came to the polls to vote in person. If they brought their ballot with them, they voted regularly. If they don’t surrender a mail ballot at the polling location, then they vote provisionally until our office can verify that we haven’t received a mail ballot.”
There were more provisional ballots accepted this year than years past, due to the increase in mail ballot requests. In previous years, a large number of provisional ballots voters were not registered either in the county or in Texas, in which case they cannot be accepted.
In other business, the commissioners voted to appoint Commissioner Ingalsbe and Judge Ruben Becerra to the Core 4 Policy Group and appointed Michelle Villegas and Lisa Griffin to the Core 4 Task Force.
The Core 4 Task Force meets monthly and worked with and advises the Youth Services Director on implementing the Youth Master Plan. They report back to the policy group with what they are working on and take recommendations from the policy group.
The commissioners also accepted a $25,000 grant from the Office of the Governor, Criminal Justice Division (CJD) for the Volunteer Veterans at Schools.
The grant funds will be used to assist in increasing community engagement between the veterans' population and the school districts within Hays County. As part of the program, veterans are trained to respond to incidents and will provide a sense of protection during peak school hours.
They also approved the revised Memorandums of Understanding between the Hays County Veteran’s Treatment Court and Counselink, Inc. and Restorative Pathways related to counseling services for veterans, as well as with Lake Inks Professional Services related to psychological evaluations, Laura L. Adams Ph.D related to psychological assessment and diagnosis for veterans.
The Veterans Treatment Court has saved the county over $250,000 dollars and positively impacted 103 Veterans’ lives. The program has drastically improved over the last three years increasing its graduation rate from 62% to 93%.
The commissioners also approved a contract with Conference Technologies, Inc. related to the Electronic Docket x6 System for the District Courts as approved in the FY21 budget process.
This system will provide a multimedia platform in order for the court dockets to display for the public in the Government Center.
