DeBeauvoir Explains and Apologizes

Dear Editor:
    In a letter entitled “Tried to Vote” [“Postmarks,” June 17], a voter expressed frustration and confusion that she was allowed to vote in the May election but not allowed to vote in the following June run-off election. In our audit following the May election, we discovered that a mistake was made, and the election worker should not have allowed this voter to participate in the May election. In response, the precinct election judge was provided additional training and all election workers were cautioned to follow procedures carefully to prevent a recurrence of this situation. When the voter returned for the run-off election, the election judge properly informed her that she did not live within the city boundaries and was not eligible to cast a ballot.
    The voter astutely questions whether combined polling locations created the problem. However, what really made this a complicated issue for the election worker is that in all city elections, city-limit lines do not always follow precinct voting boundary lines, and create a situation called "split precincts." In a split precinct, some of the voters are within city of Austin boundaries and some are outside of the city and are ineligible to vote on city issues.
    I offer my sincerest apology to this voter and hope her spirit of participation has not been dampened. In fact, her passion for fair and accurate elections makes me hope that she will consider serving as an election worker in future elections.