San Marcos City Council To Move Forward With Postponing Special Election

Staff Reports

On Tuesday, the City of San Marcos held a special meeting to discuss the resetting of elections to be held on May 2.

According to the agenda, Election Advisory No. 2020-12 was emailed to the City Council on Wednesday, March 18, regarding to the postponement of the May 2, 2020 Election to November 3.

Pursuant to Section 418.016 of the Texas Government Code, the Governor has issued a proclamation suspending certain provisions of the Texas Election Code and the Texas Water Code to allow all local political subdivisions that are utilizing the May 2, 2020 uniform election date to postpone their election to the November 3, 2020 uniform election date.

The advisory lists several things that will be affected by the postponement and explains how they will be addressed them; the items discussed include ballots by mail, election records, candidate filings and holdovers in Public Office.

According to Michael Cosentino, San Marcos City Attorney, said the governor’s proclamation does not make it mandatory for local governments to postpone May elections but offers them the option to.

Cosentino said the council can consider postponing the election to a date between May and November or until the May election.

Tammy Cook, Interim City Clerk, said if the city went ahead with the election, they would most likely have to do so without the help of the county.

Hays Consolidated Independent School District canceled their May election and declared unopposed candidates elected at their Feb. 24 meeting with a vote of 6-1 with trustee Willie Tenorio Jr. voting against.

The unopposed candidates will still be listed on the ballot at the next election but be noted as elected, according to officials. 

San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District Board of Trustees is slated to hold a special meeting on Friday, March 27, at 5 PM to discuss and potentially vote on postponing the May school board election until November. 

Mayor Jane Hughson noted other concerns such as finding polling locations and finding people willing and able to work the polls.  

“In the face of this virus, I do not see how we can in good conscious have the election on May 2,” Council Member Ed Mihalkanin said. “And because we are not sure where the spread of this virus is in our region, I would say that we should postpone the election until November of this year.”

The council shared a consensus about the postponement of the election but was not slated to vote on the issue.

The postponement of the election will be brought to the council for a vote at their next meeting. The filing period has closed for the May Election and will not be reopened even if it is postponed until November.