El Paso ISD PAC helps get word out about “penny swap” election
El Paso Independent School District residents can start voting on the “penny swap” election this Wednesday, and many residents are already being reminded through flyers, mailers, calls and volunteer rallies. But the district has to walk a very fine line in getting the word out.
Over the next couple of weeks EPISD voters will be called, their doors will be knocked on, and they daily stack of mail may be a bit thicker. The outreach has one goal: get folks to vote and get them to vote yes.
“Our job is to get this particular tax ratification passed, said Jaime Barceleau, chairman of Yes for Kids Community Campaign. Yes for Kids is political action committee with the task of not only getting the vote out, but getting people to vote yes.
“I got involved because I see it as a no-brainer,” Barceleau said.
He and about 20 volunteers, some paid, meet every week to strategize. Trustees Barceleau this task, and private funds pay for it, about $17,000 in the coffers so far.
“Half of that alone is just going to print out the little push cards, and the little door hangers and the little mailers we send out,” said EPISD spokeswoman Melissa Martinez.
EPISD benefits from all their work, yet the district isn’t apart of it. By law EPISD can only put out an informational campaign: it can tells you about the election, but it can in no way can it tell residents how to vote.
“We have a short timeline for this election cycle so we’re trying to get as much information out there as possible in the limited amount of time that we have,” Martinez said.
So far the district’s public relations committee has spent $46,000 to put out this info, $10,000 for a legal notice in the paper, $36,000 for the mailers.
“The beauty of it is, we bring $9 million from the state to El Paso,” Barceleau said. “And that’s not a one time million dollars. That’s a permanent increase in school funding for EPISD. How can you go wrong with that?”
Early voting begins Wednesday, the election is Aug. 22.
