Maverick County Citizens Tax Rollback Petition denied for lack of 99 verified signatures
Maverick County Concerned Citizens Rollback Petition of the County’s 2016 Tax Rate was unanimously denied by Maverick County Commissioners Court on Monday, January 9, 2017 for being short 99 verified signatures from the Maverick County Voter Registration Rolls.
According to the Maverick County Elections Department under Roy Schmerber, a total of 713 signatures were disqualified from the rollback petition due the individuals not being on the County Voter Registration Roll, the taxpayers signature not matching their Voter Registration Roll signature, or for other reasons.
As a result of the 713 disqualified signatures, the tax rollback petition fell 99 verified signatures short. Only 2,067 tax rollback petition signatures were verified as valid within the County Voter Registration Roll.
Representatives of the Maverick County Concerned Citizens stated that there are more than 99 valid signatures among the 713 disqualified signatures that are within the County Registered Voters Roll, raising irregularities and inconsistencies within the petition signature verification process implemented by the Maverick County Elections Department.
Maverick County Concerned Citizens also raised a lack of proper notice of the January 9, 2017 Commissioners Court Meeting as only the first page of the Agenda was posted on Maverick County Bulletin Board instead of all the pages, failing to give citizens notice of the disputed tax rollback petition agenda item. Maverick County had to re-post the January 9, 2017 Meeting Notice on the morning of the meeting date to clarify the County’s notice compliance.