I want to better explain what happened last night with the ballot boxes that required a court order to open.
State law requires that such action be taken in the presence of the county’s canvassing board. Tuesday’s snafus revealed the flaw in that law: Votes needed to be counted, but the county commission isn’t even set to authorize the creation of a canvassing board until 1 p.m. today.
District Judge Doug Driggers was called first. He told me last night that a county official explained to him the situation with the canvassing board, and Driggers decided that, because of that, he needed to be in a formal setting where he could hear from all parties involved and consider the statute, so he opted to wait until today.
District Judge Robert E. Robles was called next, this time by State Rep. Joseph Cervantes. He went to the county government center and met with county officials and representatives of the Democratic and Republicans parties. With the consensus of officials from both parties and in the presence of the media, Robles agreed to allow the county to set aside the statutory requirement and allow the boxes to be opened.
We all witnessed that happen.
The decisions made by both judges were, to some degree, controversial. The requirement in the statute placed them in positions where they had to make hard decisions. Driggers opted to wait and Robles opted to go ahead.
Driggers’ approach wasn’t improper or lazy, as some have suggested. It was just different than the approach taken by Robles.