Council to consider repealing call for special election, schedule new date
The San Marcos City Council will hold a special called meeting Tuesday to discuss updates regarding COVID-19 and its upcoming scheduled election.
The council will first discuss updates regarding the coronavirus pandemic and provide direction to staff. Then the council will transition to discussing and taking possible action to repeal the call for a special election to fill a vacant seat scheduled for May 2.
During the city council’s special meeting on March 24, the council recommended that the election for council Place 5 be postponed.
The seat became vacant when Joca Marquez turned in a letter of resignation to the city clerk’s office on March 9. The city council called for an election to fill the vacancy on March 17.
Gov. Greg Abbott issued an election advisory on March 18, which stated that “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 Nov. 3, 2020 uniform election date.”
However, according to the city council agenda packet, “the governor’s proclamation did not authorize a political subdivision with a special election to fill a vacancy set for May 2, 2020 to simply postpone the election to the Nov. 3, 2020 uniform election date. As a result, the provisions of Election Advisory 2020-12 for the May 2, 2020 Uniform Election Date that declared the filing period for a place on the ballot closed as of March 23, 2020, will not and cannot apply to a special election to fill the vacancy for city council Place 5.”
The council will consider taking action to repeal the call for the special election on May 2 and will consider a date to hold the election. “The special election will be set by subsequent ordinance for a date that minimizes the risk of exposure to and spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 and allows sufficient time to meet applicable election calendar deadlines, including new deadlines for filing an application for a place on the ballot,” the council’s agenda packet states.
Tuesday’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. and will be a virtual meeting. The meeting can be viewed at www.sanmarcostx.gov/videos or on Grande channel 16 or Spectrum channel 10. The videoconference link is https://zoom.us/j/158281403 and the dial in number is 888 788 0099.
