Deep Inside the El Paso City Charter Amendments: Amendment 1
City Charter Amendment 1 has to do with elections. The city
wants to move city elections to November.
Motive: More people vote in November, so prospective
candidates will have to get a larger % of signatures to be on the ballot.
Amendment 1 would also leave the sole discretion of
increasing the number of district representatives from 8 to ten as such times
as the population reaches one million.
Motive: Reaching 1 million may take a long time and they
know this. Many wanted to create more districts sooner rather than later because
each representative currently represents 80,000 people with District 7 not having a real
representative that last few years.
“…conform to State law” means the greater of 25 qualified
voters or .5% of the total vote. If elections are moved to November, it would
be a larger .5%.
Repercussions: It will be more expensive to run for office. November elections are more expensive. Printers and other businesses that profit from election generally charge more for November elections than May elections.
