Current election dates, term limits would force city to pay $45K more to hold own elections

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The Texas Legislature recently passed a bill that could change McKinney election dates and city council term lengths.


Gov. Rick Perry signed Senate Bill 100 on June 17 to adjust the dates of the general primary election and primary runoff election in order to bring Texas into compliance with the U.S. Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act.


The bill retains the general primary date of the first Tuesday in March of even-numbered years and shifts the primary runoff to the fourth Tuesday in May of even-numbered years. The adjustment enables state and municipal elections to comply with the MOVE Act, passed in 2009 so that federal ballots are transmitted to military and overseas voters at least 45 days before an election for federal office or any election held in conjunction with a federal election.


The bill affects cities in Collin County because it does not require that county election administration enter into a contract with the cities to provide election services on the current May election date in even-numbered years. Collin County Elections administrators have already said that they will not be able to conduct a municipal election in those years, thus forcing cities to pay for the election.


The McKinney City Council first heard the city's options under the bill at a June 7 work session meeting. McKinney can retain its mayor and council elections' date of the second Saturday in May or move it to November. Another option is to change council members' term limits to an even-numbered term, from three-year terms to two- or four-year terms.


By sharing election costs with the county on odd-numbered years, the city spends about $35,000 to hold the election. If it chooses to continue holding mayor and council elections as well as school board and bond elections in May every year, the city would have to pay about $80,000 in even-numbered years to provide its own voting machines and furnish the elections.


District 2 council member Geralyn Kever said during the meeting that there are advantages and disadvantages to both retaining and changing the election date.


"There is a significant cost for moving to hold elections on our own," she said. "There is a benefit from the citizens' perspective of going to the polls one time with the opportunity to vote for both federal and local issues."


To change the term lengths from three years to two or four years, the council would need to amend the city charter. The bill allows council to pass a resolution changing the lengths, but the city could also hold a charter election that would allow voters to make that decision.


During the June 7 meeting, Mayor Brian Loughmiller said that he isn't in favor of returning council members' terms to two years, as they were in the 1990s, because the current three-year term structure provides at least one year where no member is up for re-election.


The council has until December 31, 2012 to decide whether to change the election date and term lengths. City Manager Jason Gray and the council members said that they would like to go over all options in detail before making any decisions.


"There is obviously no ability to have a consensus right now because of the different options," Gray said during the meeting. "We can lay out the different available scenarios and costs as we best understand them. We do have a little bit of time to get this figured out."


City council will again discuss its options under SB 100 at a special meeting on Monday, June 27.

Posted in: Current election dates