Date For Recall Election Still Uncertain

City Council tackled the issue of the impending recall election against Mayor John Cook and two representatives during Tuesday’s session.

The goal was to nail down a date. But a series of issues, from whether the Texas primaries will take place at their scheduled time, to the cost of the election are muddling the date.

“I want you to sit up and take a breath. This is the cost if we do it on our own.” Municipal clerk, Richarda Momsen, said that if the city can avoid putting on it’s own election, it should take that option. Her recommendation comes down to money.

The issue is the Texas redistricting debacle; it continues to blur when republican primaries will be held. Without a date nailed down, the county election administrators can’t help alleviate costs. The elections department can’t offer its services at a discounted rate within 30 days before or after the Texas primary election.

If the city puts on its own election, the contract would range between $700,000 and $850,000 dollars. It’s a far cry from the $200,000 dollar contract with the county.

Organizing elections is not like buying groceries, or gas. The city can’t shop around as only two groups are certified to run elections in Texas.

The estimated cost for the city to run it’s own election, after training and other costs, would be between $1.1 million and $1.4 million dollars.

Pastor Tom Brown, who spearheads the group calling for the recall election, doesn’t think money should be the main factor behind the choice for a date to vote. “Democracy is paid for by the blood of our soldiers, and we ‘re going to worry about $1.1 million? Democracy is costly,” Brown said during today’s Council session.

Mayor John Cook agreed. “We have an obligation to call for the earliest possible election. We can’t consider what the cost of the re-election is going to be. It’s not our responsibility,” Cook said.

Regardless of the cost, the City is pushing for April 14th as a date for the recall election. Council members, however, still kept open the possibility of pushing the election back to May 12th.