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Two individuals have been appointed to the Hays County Elections Commission, though the rest of the commission is yet to be determined.
The Hays County Commissioners Court motioned in September to create an advisory commission which will exist “to serve Hays County as an independent advisory commission in the area of effectively identifying voting center locations and assessing the locations after each election period.”
The two goals of the commission are to evaluate the distribution and effectiveness of the early voting polls and vote centers and recommend changes as needed.
Commissioners voted Tuesday to appoint two individuals, Sandra Tenorio and Sam Tobar, to serve on the advisory commission. Tenorio will serve as a representative of the rural community and Tobar will represent the disabled community.
The commission will include the following representatives: One representative from each independent school district, including Hays CISD, San Marcos CISD, Dripping Springs ISD and Wimberley ISD; one representative from each municipality, including San Marcos, Kyle, Buda, Dripping Springs, Wimberley, Mountain City, Uhland, the City of Hays, Niederwald and Woodcreek; one representative from each County Party Chair, including the Democratic Party and the Republican Party; Texas State University Student Party Chairs, including the Democratic Party and the Republican Party; one rural community representative; one representative of the disabled community; one representative from the League of Women Voters; and two appointed citizen representatives per commissioner. The Elections Office will act as technical advisory to the commission.
While elected officials will not be on the commission, during their Sept. 3 meeting commissioners asked that each school board and municipality come together to pass a resolution that identifies a staff member to represent their entities.
Originally, only five municipalities — San Marcos, Kyle, Buda, Dripping Springs and Wimberley — were to be included in the commission, but Hays County Chief of Staff Alex Villalobos said that Mountain City, Uhland, the City of Hays, Niederwald and Woodcreek were also asked to appoint a commission member.
“They have been contacted via email. "We're waiting for their appointments from the municipalities, but I think it also allows the commissioners, since they have such a large jurisdiction, to kind of center where their appointments would be,” he said.
Pct. 4 Commissioner Walt Smith suggested that the court wait until municipalities have nominated their representatives before the court chooses their own nominees.
“There could be some folks that the municipalities are wanting to appoint, that the ISDs are wanting to appoint that we have already looked at for our appointments,” Smith said. “And I would like to, you know, at least give them the opportunity to say you have two weeks to make your appointment, we expect your appointment by Nov. 15 and we would like for the adoption of a resolution at your next meeting relative to this and give them that direction.”
Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra said he intends to appoint Arthur Taylor and Linda Tenorio to the commission.
Following unanimous motions to approve Tenorio and Tobar, the court agreed that municipalities should select their representatives by Nov. 15 so that the county can finalize the commission by Nov. 19.
