El Paso GOP Raises Election Fairness Concerns

The El Paso Republican Party attended Commissioner's Court today to raise a concern about the approval of early voting locations. Their focus was one particular location in Canutillo. The El Paso GOP take issue with the fact that one of the locations is at the Canutillo ISD District Office.

Their are two races that will likely be close on the westside, which is the only place in the county that Republicans hold office. In fact, both of the offices they currently hold are up for grabs, the commissioner's seat and the JP seat. That is why the location of an early voting location is a big deal. Any little edge can mean the difference in the election.

The GOP believes that the Canutillo ISD District Office early voting location gives the Democratic candidate for JP Sergio Coronado an unfair advantage. They may have a point, though the remedy is unclear.

The GOP officials in attendance, including Tom Homsley the Chairman of the El Paso Republican Party, Rob Pena the elections administrator for the local GOP and Becky Hermosillo who chairs the West El Paso Republican Women, used points made by County Judge Veronica Escobar in the past to remove some voting locations.

Previously the Court took action to remove locations on private property and churches as early voting locations because of the potential undue influence by employers and clergy over voters. So the Court decided that where ever practicable, the use of government or public facilities would be preferred as early voting locations.

The GOP main argument is that Sergio Coronado is a member of the CISD Board. As a member of the Board they believe it would be the same as being an employer and that he would potentially have undue influence over employees voting at that location primarily because its the same building in which is office is located. They also indicated that the location is not a regular early voting location and that Canutillo has two other early voting locations.

I should note that early voting locations are frequently changed for a myriad of reasons and so I'm not sure how strong of an argument the fact that the district office isn't a regular early voting location really is.

The building is a public/government location though, so I'm not sure what the alternative would be.

The GOP presented documents and information to the Commissioner's Court outlining their position. It appears that everyone was taken by surprise by the issue and the County Judge directed the County Attorney's Office to review the information and advise the Court before any action is taken on the matter.

The GOP was successful in raising enough of a concern that the item was postponed for a week. Final action should presumably take place next Monday.

I'm going to talk with the GOP and with the Dems to find out more about the issue and do a more comprehensive piece on this topic, but thats the overview for now.