County, city voters lax at polls

By LPR Staff
Editor/POST-REGISTER

Fewer than eight percent of the county”s voters made it to the polls this week to make their opinions known about a variety of amendments to the Texas Constitution, the City of Lockhart”s Home Rule Charter, and the creation of Hays-Caldwell County Emergency Service District No. 1.
A total of 1,540 of Caldwell County”s 19

,919 registered voters cast ballots on at least one issue. This falls slightly below statewide turnout, which hovered around 8.5 percent.
With regard to the statewide election, Caldwell County voters overwhelmingly approved most of the Constitutional Amendments proposed.
Two issues that seemed to stick in the collective craw of Caldwell County voters, though, were Amendment No. 4, which would authorize the issuance of $1 billion in bonds for various maintenance and improvement projects, and Amendment No. 15, which called for the creation of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
Both propositions failed by narrow margins in Caldwell County, with voters choosing 716-739 not to support Amendment No. 4 and 726-765 against Amendment No. 15.
At the state level, though, both measures were supported, with 58.2 percent of voters in favor of maintenance and improvement bonds and 61.44 percent supporting the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute.
Only 168 Caldwell County voters addressed an issue that will affect many, the creation of Hays-Caldwell County Emergency Service District No. 1. The district”s creation will eventually mean an increase in taxes for residents of the Emergency Service District to support fire rescue and emergency first responder services. The Hays-Caldwell Emergency Service District No. 1 will include the communities of Lytton Springs, Niederwald and Uhland, as well as much of the surrounding rural area in northern Caldwell County.
In the City of Lockhart, fewer than 500 voters weighed in on the 26 amendments proposed by the Charter Review Commission and the Lockhart City Council.
Most amendments passed by significant margins. Proposition 25, however, narrowly failed.
Had it passed, Proposition 25 would have lifted the requirement that the city council publish the reports presented by the Charter Review Commission in the local newspaper of record. However, a small majority of voters, 240, were opposed to the amendment, as opposed to the 216 that supported the idea.
The amendments will become official and go into effect after the council canvasses the vote during their Thursday, Nov. 15 council meeting.