Plans for the April 3 spaceport tax election will have to be redrawn after the Doña Ana County Board of Commissioners voted today to more than double the number of polling places that will be open.
Because the election is only five weeks away, state law requires that a district judge approve the plan before it can become formal.
The commission had previously approved 33 polling places, but many residents expressed concern that, on such an important vote, access to polling places should be easier.
As a result, the commission decided during today’s meeting to scrap its plan for consolidated polling places and use the same polling places that were open during the November 2006 election. That’s approximately 75.
“You’re asking these county residents to consider a 1/4 percent gross receipts tax increase, which will be approximately $7 million per year,” Commissioner Oscar Vasquez Butler said. “We should be looking at maximum participation.”
The change was approved on a vote of 5-0 after a separate motion to expand the polling places from 33 to 37 was defeated on a vote of 3-2.
“The enormity of this and they controversy on this, I think, deserves everybody to have a chance to go vote,” said Commissioner Dolores Saldaña-Caviness.
Elections Supervisor Lynn Ellins said the plan for 33 polling places would have cost about $56,000. Under the new plan, assuming a judge approves it, the election will cost approximately $100,000. Ellins recommended the plan to expand to 37 locations, noting that would put one polling place in each rural community in the county.
Ellins said, with five weeks to go until Election Day, expanding to so many polling places will be difficult but “theoretically possible.” He said he plans to spread the word about the changes not only through legal announcements, but also through radio and newspaper advertisements written in plain language in Spanish and English.
The vote to expand the number of sites came after several residents asked for the additional polling places.
“If you don’t open all the polling places so that all people have access to voting, it isn’t fair,” said Leon Billstone of
Commissioners had also been scheduled to discuss a resolution that would put in place safeguards on the tax to ensure that, if the spaceport doesn’t meet certain goals, they can rescind it. The commission plans to put the same restrictions on the tax money that the state Legislature put on the $115 million it appropriated last year: The state must obtain a license from the FAA to operate the spaceport; it must sign a lease agreement with Virgin Galactic, and the cost of the spaceport must be $225 million or less.
Commissioner Bill McCamley was scheduled to present the resolution, but was attending by telephone from
Update, 4:25 p.m.
There’s some confusion about how many polling places the commission approved today. There are 106 precincts in the county. Technically, each is a separate polling place, even if two or three are located in the same high school gymnasium. The commission approved using the same number of polling locations as were used for the November 2006 general election. This means 106 precincts will be located in approximately 75 buildings, or places, around the county.