Why the second ballot for the bond issue?

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As early voting began this week, we received several questions about why the KISD Bond Issue election was on a separate ballot. Our readers described their experiences at the polls this way…

They waited in line at the Cailloux Theater as they diligently do for every election. Once they arrived at the front of the line at the appropriate precinct table, their ID was checked and they were given a ballot for the midterm general election. Then, they were asked if they would also like to vote in the KISD Bond Election. (Some voters are not asked this question, perhaps if they are outside of the KISD district lines or for some other reason.) Most of our readers requested the second ballot for the KISD election, but they wondered… Why isn’t this just on the regular ballot?

There seem to be a couple of reasons for this:

  1. This is the way it’s done in Kerr County for school elections. After speaking with several background sources, we’ve been told that Kerr County could opt to keep everything on one ballot, but this is the way the elections have been administered in Kerr County for quite some time, so this keeps with the practices that have been established over the past couple of decades — for better or for worse. Keep in mind that in addition to the KISD bond election, Harper ISD and Medina ISD also have elections during this same time period, which leads to the second reason for the split ballot…
  2. Potential ballot confusion. School district lines and precinct lines do not coincide, so within one precinct, you’d have some folks within KISD, some folks within Ingram ISD, or another school district. So within one precinct, the county might have to have three or four different ballots depending on which school district the voter resides in. This could lead to some serious confusion during an unusually busy early voting season.

District Lines versus Precinct Lines

If you live in the City of Kerrville, it’s likely that you reside with the Kerrville Independent School District (KISD). But Kerr County is home to a total of eight school districts: Kerrville, Center Point, Comfort, Medina, Hunt, Ingram, Harper, and Divide. And these school district lines are not drawn on top of voting precinct lines. Here’s an image of all eight districts in Kerr.

District lines for all eight districts within Kerr County, Texas.

And here’s an image of the voting precinct lines on top of those district lines. Precinct lines are shown here in thick black.

School districts and voting precinct lines overlaid.

As you can see, almost every voting precinct outside of the city limits of Kerrville has parts of multiple school districts within it. So, imagine how many different ballots would have to be ordered to correspond to each voting situation within each precinct! This could be a nightmare to administer with paper ballots on early voting days.

Early Voting at KISD Campuses

In addition to the early voting center at the Cailloux Theater in downtown Kerrville (which is available to all residents within Kerr County), KISD has established early voting centers at various campuses around Kerrville. But be aware… The ONLY ballot that is available at these locations is the KISD Bond Election. You CANNOT cast a ballot for other midterm election races such as Senate, House of Representatives, and statewide races.

BUT… The newspaper made a mistake. You CAN find this KISD bond ballot at the Cailloux Theater. You DO NOT have to travel to one of the campuses to cast this ballot. You can do it all in one place at the Cailloux Theater throughout the early voting times below:

October 22, 2018 to October 26, 2018 – Polls open 8:00am to 5:00pm.
October 27, 2018 – Polls open 7:00am to 7:00pm.
October 28, 2018 – Polls open 11:00am to 4:00pm.
October 29, 2018 to November 2, 2018 – Polls open 7:00am to 7:00pm.

The elections areĀ  being administered with separate voter databases. So if you vote at a campus location, you can still cast your other ballot at the Cailloux Theater during early voting, or at your polling place on election day.

Bottom Line

The bottom line is this… If you live within KISD or one of the other school districts holding elections, be sure and ask specifically for that second ballot so that you can fully participate in the 2018 elections!

And if you have any questions, be sure to ask!