While early voting throughout Nueces County was comparatively slow, Port Aransas paced other voting locations with between eight and nine percent voter turnout at the end of voting Tuesday, May 8, the last day in the early voting period.
Election official Betsy Churgai said 289 cast early ballots in Port Aransas during the early voting period.
County-wide, the early voting turnout was about three percent.
Election Day is Saturday, May 12, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Community Center, 408 N. Alister. Results will be available by calling the South Jetty after 7:30 p.m. at 749-5131. Results also will be posted on the South Jetty Web site, www.portasouthjetty. com.
The ballot includes seven pages on the e-slate ballot. It starts with one state constitutional amendment, followed by the Port Aransas Independent School District Board of Trustees election, the city’s general election and, finally, 27 proposed amendments to the city charter.
SCHOOL BOARD The race on the school board ballot for Place 5 is between retired Port Aransas High School English teacher Rita Reed and incumbent Chuck Borders who owns a property management company.
Incumbents in Places 4 and 6, Bob Smith and Rick Adams, are unopposed in their bids for re-election. Smith is involved in sales, and Adams is a banker.
Terms are for three years, and there are no limits on the number of a terms a trustee may serve.
CITY COUNCIL
Keith Donley is the lone candidate for Place 1, although incumbent Beverly Charles’ name will be on the ballot. Charles withdrew from the race too late to have her name removed from the ballot. She has endorsed Donely’s candidacy.
Rick Pratt is unopposed in his bid for re-election to Place 5, and Charles Bujan, candidate for Place 3 left vacant by the death of Jerry Watson, did not draw an opponent.
Jim Polewchak is filling in the Place 3 spot. He was appointed by the city council in February.
Pratt is an art gallery owner. Bujan is a retiree, and Donley is a Realtor.
Terms are for two years, and council members are limited to three consecutive terms.
CHARTER AMENDMENTS
Port Aransas voters will be asked to vote on 27 charter amendments. The amendments have been published in the South Jetty, which is this week publishing the fourth and final part of a series putting the amendments in layman’s language.
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT Currently under Texas law, homeowners age 65 or older, or who have a disability, are eligible to have the amount of school property taxes they owe on their residence homestead frozen based on the amount they owed the year they qualified for the cap.
When the 79th Legislature passed school property tax cuts in 2006, elderly and disabled Texans whose school property taxes were already frozen did not receive a corresponding reduction in their school property taxes. Therefore, in order for elderly and disabled Texans to receive a proportional reduction in ad valorem taxes, an allowance must be made for such a reduction in the Texas Constitution.
This amendment would provide such a reduction for the 2006 and 2007 tax years. If approved, the amendment will expire Jan 1, 2009, which means that school tax reductions after the 2007 tax year would require another constitutional amendment.
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