Humble ISD trustee-elect failed to change her voter registration

Humble ISD trustee-elect failed to change her voter registration in time to sit on the school board
A candidate who won her bid for the Humble ISD school board on May 3 has now been declared ineligible after her opponent challenged her candidacy, a district spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
Brittnai Brown, a former educator, was sued by opponent Tracy Shannon after the election, and the lawsuit cited voter records that showed that Brown did was not registered to vote in the district for the required six months before the filing deadline to run for the board. Brown and Shannon both cast bids to unseat the incumbent trustee Ken Kirchhofer for position four on the board. Vote totals from May 3 show that Brown took the lead, with 4,066 votes, Shannon came in second with 3,237 votes and Kirchhofer came in last place with 3,197 votes. In the lawsuit, Shannon had asked for an injunction to canvassing the votes and for herself to be named victor instead, because she had the second highest number of votes. She also accused officials in the district of being unable to read at the last board meeting due to the discrepancy. "The district has taken the right step in declaring Ms. Brown ineligible. The pleadings in the lawsuit speak for themselves," Shannon said. "I ran against Ken Kirchhofer because I believe the district deserves better. There was a clear call for accountability in the district and I believe the election results reflect that appetite for accountability."But the district still canvassed the votes at a board meeting on May 13 because the district's legal counsel, Jeremy Binkley said that the district was legally obligated to canvass the votes on the 11th day after the election. Binkley also said if the trustee-elect was declared ineligible, it would create a vacant seat on the board that would be filled either with a special election or by board appointment. After reviewing voter records, the district found that Brown's registration on Feb. 14 listed a Houston ISD address. Brown changed her address to a Humble ISD address where she now lives likely around the time of the filing deadline, but it did not become effective until March 16, because it takes 30 days for changes on voter registration to become effective, according to Texas Secretary of State guidelines. Until a decision is made by the board about whether to call a special election or to fill the seat by appointment, Kirchhofer will continue to serve on the board, according to Humble ISD's Chief Communications Officer Jamie Mount. She confirmed that the school board has not met to determine how to move forward, but that the rest of the candidates who won their seats will be confirmed at a board meeting on June 10. Mount said that the district "has not experienced a problem with candidate voter registration in prior elections."Typically, when the district receives candidate filings, the school district checks that the address on the application for a place on the ballot is within Humble ISD, that the candidate is a registered voter, and candidates sign that they are eligible to hold office under the laws of the state, Mount said. "This whole issue highlights some need to change the law to clarify that the election authority needs to have some responsibility to determine eligibility beyond looking at the application," Shannon said. "This can be easily prevented in the future with a simple legislative remedy."Shannon said that she will continue to pursue a seat on the board to bring "clear thinking and fiscal responsibility." And this wasn't the only election challenge Humble ISD faced. Candidate Natalie Carter, who lost her race to Board President Chris Parker by 40 votes, filed a petition for a recount costing her campaign $5,800. The petition was accepted Saturday, and a recount will take place on Friday, going into Saturday if needed, Carter wrote on her campaign Facebook page. Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment.www.houstonchronicle .com/news/houston-te xas/education/articl e/humble-isd-tr website&utm_campaign=another website_news