The Texas Public Policy Foundation today released a paper by Center for Local Governance Senior Policy Analyst Jess Fields on fair elections. The paper, How to Ensure Fair Elections in Texas, outlines reforms to improve access and fairness in Texas elections, including moving local elections to November, keeping voting locations constant, and providing voters with information about outstanding debt for the locality, the principal and interest of proposed bonds, and the tax impact for the average homeowner.
“Local elections in Texas suffer from a lack of turnout due to May placement and rolling polling—moving voting locations every day during early voting—and a lack of transparency due to minimal information provided to voters on the ballot,” said Fields. “In order to improve the fairness of the local elections process, as well as to improve the ability of citizens to hold their government accountable by having more information, the Legislature should enact reforms to ensure that local elections adhere to the basic principle that government belongs to the people.”
To read the full report, visit: http://txpo.li/ensure-fair-elections-texas
The Honorable Jess Fields is the Senior Policy Analyst in the Center for Local Governance at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and a former College Station City Councilman.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.