San Angelo ISD's $148.9 Million Bond Election May Fail and Here's Why

SAN ANGELO, TX — Provisional ballots may determine the fate of the San Angelo Independent School District’s $150 million bond proposal this week.  

Voters went to the polls Saturday and the results were too close to call after voting ended Saturday night.  The unofficial tally was 3,044 votes for the bond and 3,041 against with 33 under votes.

San Angelo ISD Board President Lanny Layman said Sunday that the school board is awaiting the final, official results from the bond election.  “Saturday night’s vote was extremely close, and we will be waiting, with the rest of San Angelo, to hear the final tally, which could be sometime next week. We thank those in the community who have worked so tirelessly on our proposed bond and appreciate the for looking ahead to the future needs of the students we serve and the staff we employ.”   

Elections officials will conduct a recount of all ballots cast along with provisional ballots and any remaining mail in ballots received by Saturday.  Provisional votes are handled separately from traditional votes. According to votetexas.gov, the voter-marked provisional ballots are kept separately from the regular ballots, and the voter’s records will be reviewed by the provisional voting ballot board (the early voting ballot board), to determine if the ballot is to be counted or rejected.

If applicable, the voter registrar will conduct whatever research is necessary to determine whether the voter is or should have been registered in the precinct in which the voter cast the provisional ballot and will pass this information on to the ballot board to assist it in making the decision of whether the provisional ballot must be counted. Provisional voters will receive a notice in the mail by the 10th day after the local canvass advising them if their provisional ballots were counted, and if they were not counted, the reason why.

The affidavit for a provisional ballot lists seven reasons for voting provisional:

1. Failed to present acceptable form of identification.
2. Voter not on the list of registered voters.
3. Voter not on the list but registered in another precinct.
4. Voter is on the list of people who requested a mail in ballot.
5. Voted after 7:00 p.m. due to a court order.
6. Voter on the list but registered residence address outside the political subdivision.
7. Other.  

What is also troubling is the 33 under votes cast on Saturday.  There was only one item on the ballot and that was the bond. Voters could cast a ballot for the bond, against the bond, or leave the ballot blank.  33 voters left the ballot blank; 13 during early voting and 20 on election day. There is no way to tell if those voters intentionally left the ballot blank or whether they intended to vote one way or the other and failed to cast a ballot correctly.   Either way, those 33 votes are counted as under votes, neither for nor against the bond.

What remains is for the ballot board to manually go through the provisional ballots one by one to determine whether each is eligible to be counted or not.  With a three vote margin, the vote could go either way. Elections Administrator for the county, Vona Hudson, said the final count will not be known until May 14. Later Monday, May 7, Hudson released complete data on the status of the May 5, 2018 bond election. See it here.

By the way, this week is teacher appreciation week.