Local Republican Party to file complaints
By LYNDA STRINGER - Tribune City Editor
Saturday, November 15, 2008 12:33 PM CST
The Titus County Republican Party plans to file formal complaints on what it sees as improper partisan politics on Election Day.
At its regular meeting Thursday evening, the group also discussed ways to strengthen grass roots involvement among Republicans in the county.
Disgruntled over several Election Day issues, the group listed several things that they hope to see changed before the next election.
"We just went over things that we saw that we were troubled by and concerned over and we made of list of those things that happened at the polls," said Titus County Republican Party Chair Sue Evenwel.
Among the complaints the party will file is an incident in which Evenwel alleges Democratic Party Chair Norma Narramore improperly entered a polling place on Election Day, a violation of the Texas Election Code.
The incident occurred at Corprew Elementary School, the Precinct 1 polling place. "On Election Day the presiding judge is the law and you, as the party chair, are not allowed in the precinct," Evenwel said.
"You don't go in there for any reason. You stay outside the building. You have to take partisan politics out of the voting place. You can't be a Democrat or a Republican when you go in there as an officer. That's to keep everything clean and above board."
The group took issue with another incident involving electioneering outside the 100-foot distance barrier at the Mount Pleasant Civic Center polling location. Evenwel said Civic Center Manager Bill Luck would not allow people to post signs outside of that limit.
The Texas Election Code prohibits signs and electioneering within 100 feet of a polling place.
"We were chased off at the Civic Center and Bill Luck told us the city does not allow signs on Election Day on city property even outside the barrier," Evenwel said. "We did not put up a fuss, we obeyed the city code, but we are pursuing that with the city."
Evenwel said, according to state law, if an entity agrees to serve as a polling place it must allow partisan signs and electioneering on Election Day as long as it occurs outside the 100-foot barrier.
Evenwel took the issue to Interim City Manager Darrell Grubbs. "He told me that in fact it was city code not put any signage or to allow electioneering on city property, and when I explained the state law, he said, "I hope you will work with me on this and we will see what we can do in the future,'" Evenwel said.
Evenwel said she attempted to get clarification from the Secretary of State's Office on whether city code can supersede state law, but has not yet received an answer.
The Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune could not confirm the statute and could not reach Grubbs for comment.
The group also plans to file a formal complaint that Elections Administrator Leonard Rockwell did not require Democratic Party Headquarters to remove its political signs on Election Day due to its proximity to a polling place.
"The Democrat Headquarters is within 100 feet of the door to the [courthouse] annex, Precinct 14, and nothing was done to cover up the signage," Evenwel said. "We are very disgruntled about that. As Republicans, we would never get away with that. In fact, we would get the wrath of the Democratic Party if we ever tried that."
Evenwel said the party's complaints are not just "sour grapes."
"These things are legitimate," she said.
The party plans to begin the process of filing formal complaints on the issues by first sending a letter to Rockwell in the next few weeks.
The Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune could not reach Norma Narramore or Rockwell for comment.
Looks ahead to future
In other business, the party discussed ways it could generate more grass roots involvement among Republicans in Titus County.
The group did an analysis of the election and talked about where they will go from here.
"There has been a tremendous amount of excitement in the grass roots of the Republican Party," Evenwel said.
While local Republican candidates Gerry Evenwel and Kirby Hollingsworth both lost to their Democratic opponents, the Republicans carried Titus County in the presidential election. Republican incumbents Senator John Cornyn and District 4 U..S. Representative Ralph Hall held off their Democratic challengers and carried the county.
The party plans to form a Republican club after the first of the year that will be a social club, rather than an official party organization.
"We'll have a speaker and we want men and women and even kids to come," Evenwel said. "A lot of teenagers are interested in Republican politics in the schools and we want to encourage that."
The party recognizes that they lagged far behind in reeling in voters with technology, so they plan to work toward changing that. Record numbers of young people registered to vote in the presidential election this year, many energized by efforts within the Democratic Party to reach them through the Web.
"We will be doing outreach to young Republicans," she said. "We have a tech committee, an outreach committee, public relations and recruitment with a goal to be ready for the election in 2010."
The party launched its official Web site in October. The Web address is www.TitusCountyRepublicanParty.com.
"I have felt all along that we need to be using technology. We're not doing a blog off of our page, but we are setting up a forum," Evenwel said. "There's a real need, a definite age gap here. We don't have that many young people, young couples and young families that can be involved. I feel that the technology is at least a link into their homes when they can't be at meetings and we need to use it better."
