Have the firefighter propositions on ballot changed names?
Images are being circulated on social media that state the propositions relating to El Paso firefighters are now known by articles on the ballot, possibly confusing voters.
On the hard copy mailers sent to voters’ homes and forwarded on social media Proposition 2 is now Article 9 and Proposition 3 is now Article 14. Proposition 1 is now Article 24.
Along with two pictures posted of the mailers on the Support YOUR El Paso Firefighters Facebook page, the pictures were accompanied with, “The picture says it all. The City has manipulated the ballot so that, after hearing about Props 2&3 for at least a month, it’s now Articles 9&14. Article 24 (drug testing)-previously Prop 1 will also be there. As we have hoped all along we are looking for your vote of “YES” on Article 9/Prop 2 & Article 14/Prop 3. This Saturday, May 9th, is the last day for voting. Support YOUR El Paso Firefighters.”
City officials say Joe Tellez, the president of the firefighters union, approved the ballot language during discussions on the referendum on February 24 and Mach 24, 2015.
“The allegations being made by the Firefighter’s Union that the ballot language for the referendum election has been changed are false.The language printed by the County Elections office is the language the City Council approved after receiving confirmation from Joe Tellez that the language had been approved by the Union. The captions contain the specific proposition number followed by the relevant Article in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Article numbers have always been a part of the caption. The public record and official documents are very clear on the issue,” Sylvia Borunda Firth, City Attorney, said in a statement.
There is no indication that the El Paso firefighters union, IAFF Local 51, has anything to do with the Support YOUR El Paso Firefighters Facebook page and there is nothing on the official IAFF Local 51 Facebook page about the proposition name changes.
“On the ballot, the propositions 1, 2, and 3 continue to be the propositions relating to the firefighters. We were hired by the City of El Paso to conduct their election. They provided the order and the language of the propositions. We reviewed that with them,” Lisa Wise, El Paso County Elections Administrator, told ABC-7. “The City approved the final order and language and we printed the ballot according to what they had approved. The article 9 and article 14 language was language that was also provided to us by the city and on the approved ballot.”
Wise said her office is not aware that any formal complaints have been made regarding the language on the ballot related to the firefighter propositions.
Proposition 1 deals with firefighters being drug tested, proposition 2 deals with a possible raise for firefighters, and proposition 3 deals with a possible change in how much firefighters would pay for health insurance.
A copy of the sample ballot printed by ABC-7 from the Elections Department website a couple of weeks ago showed the firefighter items only with the article numbers and not the proposition numbers. The sample ballot, as seen on the County Elections website today, shows the firefighter items having both propositions and articles.
“The initial sample ballot that was on the website was a draft sample ballot for informational purposes,” Wise said. “The official ballots used for Early Voting and Election Day have both the proposition and article numbering in the heading. We received the final ballot language on March 20th.”
