COLDSPRING — Training for election judges led to a rift between the Democrat Party of and the San Jacinto County Commissioners Court on Wednesday.
At the regular court meeting, San Jacinto County Democrat Party Chair Benita Malone raised concerns about Elections Administrator Cheri Walker and the scheduling for election judges, including being told that there was not enough money budgeted to have Democrat judges work during early voting. She also said that two judges were unable to attend state-mandated training provided by Walker and were not given an opportunity to make that up.
“I believe my right to participate is not being acknowledged or facilitated in that two Democrat election workers could not make the scheduled election judge training prior to the general election, and no makeup sessions were set, and Walker said that anyone who had not participated in the training will not be allowed to work on election day,” Malone said.
She said that Walker’s actions are overriding court decisions, which appointed the judges, because they had legitimate conflicts with the training date; since the county will not seat judges who have not been trained, Malone was seeking a new training session for her two judges.
When Vicki Shelley was EA when I started, she did an excellent job and was completely nonpartisan. That cannot be said of the current administrator, Malone said.
“This is not a Republican vs. Democrat issue; it is a free and fair election issue, and we have the right to be in the room,” she said. “We get resistance from the current administrator to allowing us in the room. I am asking that the election workers approved by the county be allowed to work on election day and to work at every location.”
Walker told the court that there were four training sessions provided throughout this year.
County Judge Fritz Faulkner questioned Malone on her election experience, since he has been involved in county elections 60 years and has not seen her involved in any elections.
Malone said she has been in the county three years and had started with the Democrat Party then.
“You’re sitting up here preaching at everybody about how dumb we are and we need to fix this and change that, and I’ve even run as a Democrat and I’ve never seen past president’s voice raised, and everything has run smooth, and every time you walk into the room it’s a big old struggle, and I don’t understand that,” he said.
Malone said that was not her intention, it was that she did not think it was possible for the court to understand all of the election code.
“It’s my responsibility to know the rules and to help make sure that everything is going smoothly,” she said. “This is a very contested election and is in the best interest of everyone that it is run properly and fairly.”
Faulkner also pointed out that there is a big difference between primary and general elections in that the respective parties are in charge during the primaries, but not during the general “as they might think they are.”
The court approved replacing two untrained Democrat judges with ones who are trained, but did not mandate new training as the court deemed that a conflict of interest. In conversations aside from the matter, Walker agreed hands-on training on election equipment could be done during early voting.
In other business, the county:
