Update – Brown County Elections Administrator Suzy Young released more information regarding the error in the voter eligibility list for Brownwood ISD School Board Elections for Place 4.
“We made a mistake and we will do everything we can do to fix mistakes. We already have a procedure in place for BISD.”
“It wasn’t an error caused by maps from the appraisal district; it was a human error from the elections administration office. We just didn’t have enough time, we were rushed. My staff has done a wonderful job preparing for this and the general election. We are human, but if we had had ample time, we would have caught the error. BCAD has worked great with us; they have been wonderful to help us anytime we needed maps for the elections (both general and school board).”
“We do our best to facilitate people’s right to vote. I am not here to see people vote in the wrong district. I’ll do anything I can to help anyone vote, even if it means going to the jail to take a ballot to an inmate who is eligible to vote.”
The Brown County Elections office has three full time employees along with two part time employees. Anyone who has questions about the voting process or that need assistance in voting due to a handicap or special situation can call the elections office at 325-646-4333.
Original Story – Brownwood ISD Place 4 candidate Stanley Walker alerted the Brown County Elections Office Wednesday morning that the list of eligible voters for Place 4 was inaccurate.
Over 2199 potential Place 4 voters are listed on the eligible voter list officials are using during early voting, but elections officials identified approximately 13 streets on the map where residents are listed as living in Place 4 who should have been moved to Place 3 because of recent redistricting by Brownwood ISD, according to Assistant Elections Administrator Larry Franks. Voters in a single-member district are only allowed to vote for the candidates running in that district.
Initially, officials thought only a small number of ineligible voters were erroneously listed in Place 4. Of the voters who cast ballots during early voting before the error was reported, only 3 voters had been identified to have cast ineligible votes. After looking further at the list, Franks said that they realized there were additional streets not identified and that number may be more.
The office is currently reviewing the list and will be publishing a new list for elections workers to use.
“We are ferociously working on the streets we didn’t get converted from BISD Place 4 to Place 3,” said Franks.
It is undetermined at this time the total number of ineligible voters who have cast a ballot in Place 4, according to Franks. He stated that a new manual verification process has been put into place where addresses are compared to a map of the BISD districts for every voter who wishes to vote in the Place 4 election. Some voters casting ballots in the Brownwood ISD school board election may experience this new procedure until the eligible voter list can be corrected.
Franks stated that when the redistricting became official a few months ago, BISD gave the elections office notice, and maps were then created at the Brown County Appraisal District which the elections office would refer to for the elections process. Franks and Elections Administrator Suzy Young began adding addresses to the Place 4 eligible voter list; however there were streets unidentified as redistricted into Place 3 by election officials, Franks said. This resulted in numerous streets being erroneously left on the eligible voter list this week. Many voters remained in Place 4 that should have been removed and entered into Place 3, according to Franks.
“It’s a monstrous process when an entity redistricts,” said Franks. “It’s a major effort for us.”
Franks explained that the state provided elections software, Texas Elections Administration Management System (TEAMS), is not user friendly, and it is difficult and extremely time consuming due to the safeguards of the software design. He stated that one street can take many hours to “rebuild” or enter properly.
Stanley Walker, Brant Baugh, and incumbent Eric Evans are running for the Place 4 BISD School Board Trusteee seat.
Voters with questions can call the Brown County Elections Office at 325-646-4333
