What else would you expect? It’s 2020 and this year just has to be the burr under our saddle in everything.
Early voting for the 2020 general election starts Tuesday and about the only way this year’s ballots could be any more confusing would be if they were printed in bitcoin.
Well, you say, that’s something we can’t blame on COVID-19.
Oh yes it is.
Because of the pandemic, the city council and school board elections, which are always held the first Saturday in May, were shoved back to the general election date, Nov. 3.
Even if those elections had been held on schedule in May they would have been more confusing than usual. That’s because, in addition to the usual, there are two additional questions for Rockdale city and school district voters to decide.
One of those is pretty straightforward. Do city voters want to convey Fair Park to the Rockdale Fair Association? That’s straight up yes or no.
But the other is quite a bit more complex. It asks if voters want to expand the boundaries of the Rockdale Hospital District to those of the school district. But that’s the Cliff’s Notes explanation.
The reality is quite a bit more complex. Two different sets of voters would have to approve that measure for it to happen. One is voters who reside inside the 1994 city limits of Rockdale. The other is voters who reside outside the 1994 city limits of Rockdale but within the Rockdale ISD.
Both of them will have to approve the expansion for it to happen.
As if that were not complex enough, there are actually two propositions on the ballot related to the expansion. One asks voters to expand the district and one asks if voters in the segment of voters who would be paying a hospital district tax for the first time—those annexed into the City of Rockdale after 1994—will assume a proportionate share of the district’s outstanding debts and taxes.
Translation: Do they want to begin paying a tax to a new—for them—entity.
Again, both those propositions will have to pass or the district will not expand.
Bottom line. That’s four proposals—two for a section city voters and two for a smaller section of city voters plus the remainder of the Rockdale ISD—and all four must pass for the expansion to take place.
Got that?
To make it just a little more complicated, the hospital district propositions are labeled B and C which might lead voters to think they missed an “A” proposal on the expansions. They haven’t A is the Fair Park proposal.
Also, there’s a contested Rockdale ISD school board race on the ballot. It might be easy to overlook. There is no Rockdale City Council contest. Two persons had filed for a west ward seat earlier in the year but one withdrew.
Also, the ballot lists the unopposed candidates declared elected for the city council and hospital board. (One unopposed school board candidate is on the ballot).
And that’s all in addition to the usual general election races which includes everything from president to constable.—M.B.
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