Council Moves Mobile Voting Sites To Public Places

The El Paso City Council has again voted to move all mobile voting sites to public places – removing the ballot box from churches and businesses.

Council had voted on the issue two weeks ago in a sort of impromptu motion by Representative Beto O’Rourke. They stood by their decision to move the sites, but agreed that they should hear from the community first, hence the second vote.

Several members of the El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization, or EPISO, and Border Interfaith asked council to keep the mobile voting sites at churches and businesses. “The sites that you would eliminate have been used for years in El Paso without problems or controversy of any kind,” said Wayne Kendrick, the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church. Peace Lutheran has been a mobile and permanent voting site in past elections.

Representatives are concerned that taking the ballot box to businesses or churches with prevailing points of view, religious and political beliefs, and special interests is unfair and could skew election results. “This comes down to special interests having the polls taken to their doorstep,” said Representative Steve Ortega.

The decision comes about two months before voters in El Paso may consider an item related to benefits of gay and unwed partners of city employees. The debate around the issue has mainly come from a religious community who believe homosexuality and pre-marital sex are an abomination to God. El Pasoans for Traditional Family Values successfully brought a citizens’ referendum to the voters, that passed, and took away the health insurance of gay and unwed partners of city employees. A federal judge is currently deciding if the measure is constitutional and depending on what happens in court, it could go up for a vote again in May.

Representative Ann Morgan Lilly said arguments made in council chambers in the last year by religious people who argued the bible was more relevant than the constitution, concerned her “When a church is involved, I feel like there could be pressure to say that ‘you need to vote for whatever translation that church gives to the bible,” she said.

Representative Carl Robinson, who was the lone vote against moving the sites, said there was no evidence to prove voting at churches or businesses heavily influenced residents, or discouraged them. “We should be doing everything we can to encourage people to vote and we should not be restricting locations where people have opportunities to vote,” he said.

Kendrick agreed with Robinson. He said the state election code established that voting sites at churches, businesses, and in some cases, even private residences are proper. He argued that council’s move was “a step backwards in this trend in making voting easier and more accessible.”

According to county election records, in last November’s General Election, only about a quarter of registered voters cast a ballot.

Not everyone in council chambers asked the representatives to reverse their vote. Jo Bosley, a certified and trained poll watcher and County Precinct Judge said she had seen illegal and improper campaigning at church voting sites. “We found unauthorized individuals being allowed free reign with access and contact with the voters…(that) lends itself to onsite campaigning and influencing of the voters,” she said.

Bosley added precinct judges and poll watchers are often reluctant to report the violations.

“The judges are reluctant to enforce the rules on these occasions, after all, it’s intimidating, who wants to tell a priest he cannot hang around his own facility,” she said.

EPISO officials said council’s move would hurt their constituents. “To take away the early voting sites in our churches and in our businesses is only going to do one thing; it is going to diminish voting in El Paso and in the end, that will hurt our city,” said Eliseo DeAvila.

After hearing EPISO’s points, Representative Eddie Holguin, looked upset and took issue with them.

“They claim to help the poor, but not once did they say ‘lets put the polling places in some of the housing authority properties’. It’s just plain hypocrisy from this organization, special interest, self-interested group that does absolutely nothing to help the community! And I think that it’s wrong that they come here and ask for such a thing, especially when they receive federal, state and local funds!,” said Holguin.

When given another opportunity to speak, DeAvila responded. “As for the ridiculous allegations that you’re making, Mr. Holguin, about EPISO not caring about the poor, think about 834 people that have come out of poverty and now are earning a living wage, because of Project Arriba. Think about the 70-thousand residents in the colonias who now have running water. We’re the ones responsible for that. Think about that!”, he told Holguin.

Holguin later responded. “I’d like to stand by my comments, I don’t regret any of my comments. It’s no secret that I don’t like EPISO. EPISO is a very self-interested group and for an organization that praises itself on helping the poor, you sure show a really strange way of showing that you do, because EPISO supports toll roads and regressive taxes, and EPISO does absolutely nothing to help anyone, period! And your position to me is very laughable and ludicrous!”, he said.