Early Voting In Amendment Election Underway

Early Voting For Amendments Underway

Seven proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution are before Texas voters this year, with early balloting underway for Castro County residents at the clerk’s office in the courthouse in Dimmitt. Early voting ends October 30.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3. For registered Hart voters, the election will be in the Hart Golden Group from  7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Karen Barnes serves as Election Judge. Voters are required to present photo ID when voting in person.

Any citizen without an approved ID can apply for a free Election Identification Certificate at any DPS driver’s license office; to do this,  you will need a birth certificate, which you can receive free of charge from the state.

A brief synopsis of the proposed amendments follows:

Amendment No. 1:  Increases the residential homestead exemption on ad valorem taxation for public school purposes from the current $15,000 to $25,000.

Amendment No. 2:  Extends the current residential homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation for the non-remarried surviving spouse of a 100 percent or  totally disabled veteran to the surviving spouses of veterans who died before 2011. (The original amendment was approved in 2011, but was not retroactive.)

 Amendment No. 3:  Repeals the requirement for the Comptroller of Public Accounts, the Commssioner of the General Land Office the Attorney General, and any other officers reelected statewide to reside in Austin, the state capital. (The amendment would not apply to the residence requirement for the Governor.)

Amendment No. 4:  Would allow a professional sports team charitable foundation to conduct charitable raffles under the terms and conditions imposed by general law.

Amendment No. 5:  Increases from 5,000 to 7,500 the maximum total population threshold of a county that is allowed to construct and maintain private roads, as long as the county imposes a reasonable charge for the work. (Castro County Judge Carroll Gerber told The Pulse on Monday that as far as he knows, the County does not perform private work.)

Amendment No. 6:  Adds the right to hunt, fish and harvest wildlife, including by use of traditional methods, to the Bill of Rights of the Texas Constitution.

Amendment No 7:  Dedicates a portion of state sales tax, auto sales taxes and sales taxes on rental cars to the State Highway Fund to be used only to construct, maintain or acquire rights-of-way for public roadways other than toll roads, or to repay transportation-related debt.