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Rollback Petition is denied

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Concerned taxpayers contest results

 

Jaclyn Guzmán

Staff Writer

 

  Thousands of Maverick County citizens were disappointed to find out months of investigating and collecting signatures in hopes of a tax rollback petition had been in vain.

    At a special meeting held Monday, January 9, the Maverick County Commissioner’s Court denied the Maverick County concerned taxpayers’ tax rate rollback petition submitted on December 22 because of a shortage of 99 signatures.

 County Elections Administrator Roy Schmerber stated that 2,780 total signatures had been submitted, however, only 2,313 were registered voters. After invalidating duplicate signatures as well as those which appeared to have been forged, plus the omission of names from several people who submitted documents stating that they wanted their names to be removed, 2,067 names were left: 99 less than the 2,166 that were required for a valid petition. 

  713 signatures were found to be invalid, about 40 of them duplicates, by the six people verifying signatures from Thursday morning to Sunday evening, said Schmerber.

  Ethelvina Felán, one of the group of concerned taxpayers’ most outspoken members, is contesting the results, claiming that the signatures were incorrectly verified, and that additional signatures she tried to submit Monday would have made the petition valid.

   “I acknowledge that incomplete signatures and duplicate signatures existed in the petition. I noted those prior to submitting the petition. However, alone, the inclusion of these additional signatures exceeds the amount required to call for a rollback election,” said Felán. “I must also add that I have grown increasingly concerned after reviewing the released list of verified signatures. With over 450 petitioners deemed ‘not registered,’ I have found several instances where registered voters were found to be ‘not registered.’ Many of these are individuals I know personally andI I have confirmed that they are on the voter registration list. Your actions have disenfranchised these individuals and violated their rights by not including them. Unfortunately, I am certain they are not alone.”

  Felán said that if necessary the group of concerned taxpayers would provide the county with a list of registered voters who signed the petition, but who the county said were not registered.

  “I request a prompt response on how these violations of law will be corrected because it is clear that there was a lack of knowledge on the laws and regulations that pertain to rollback petitions,” said Felán.

  Despite Felán sending an open letter to Saucedo in regards to noncompliance with the Texas Open Meetings Act Monday morning, the commissioners still discussed the tax rate rollback petition after an emergency supplemental notice for the consultation with attorney to discuss and consider possible action on the Tax Rate Roll Back Petition was issued.

 

 

 

No reunieron las firmas de  elección para  roll back

 

Staff reports

 

 El pasado lunes 9 de enero  la corte de comisionados  tuvo su junta regular,  entre los temas de mas importancia fueron las firmas para una elección para el Roll back.  Un grupo de ciudadanos se hechó a cuestas la tarea de recaudar firmas  para llamar a esta elección.    

   A la junta  asistió el Sr. Roy Schmerber administrador de eleccion  del condado quien pasó al micrófono ya que él y su personal fueron los encargados de revisar firma por firma.  Se recibieron 2,780 firmas, sin embargo solo 2,313 fueron comprobadas que son votantes registrados.   Informó que se invalidaron varias firmas que iban duplicadas, así como algunas que las firmas no coincidian con las originales, tambien se presentaron peticiones de ciudadanos pidiendo que sus nombres fueran eliminados de la lista quedando en total  de 2,067 nombres, 99 menos de los 2,166 para que pudieran lograr  valida esta petición.    

   En total 713 firmas fueron declaradas invalidadas unas 40 estaban repetidas, según fue la información que dieron las trabajadoras de la oficina del Sr. Schmerber.  

   Ethelvina Felán quien fue una de las impulsora de la recoleccion de firmas, está impugnando los resultados alegando que las firmas  no fueron correctamente  verificadas.   Ella dijo: encontré varios casos en que  ellos dicen que los votantes  no estaban registrados, muchas de estas son personas  que yo conozco y he confirmado que están en la lista dle registro de votantes, sus acciones han privado de  sus derechos a estas personas y han violado sus derechos a no ser contados. 

   En una entrevista con el Juez del condado  dijo que  felicitaba a las personas que levantaron estas firmas porque es un derecho de toda persona en este pais la libre expresión, pero que las firmas que recogieron no fueron suficientes para poder llevar a cabo esta elección, del roll back, tambien mencionó en la junta que cuando se revisen nuevamente los impuestos buscaran formar un comité de ciudadanos de este condado y dijo que invitaría a Ethelvina Felán para ver si está de acuerdo de participar en este comité.  

 

 

 

 

Last modified on Tuesday, 10 January 2017 22:17

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