With early voting starting Monday some of the highest ranking elected officials in Odessa held a Friday news conference calling for civility at the polls and indicating they hoped the event would be preventative with a highly charged national and local election underway.
Ector County Judge Dustin Fawcett, Sheriff Mike Griffis and County Commissioners Mike Gardner and Billy Hall held the news conference at the County Annex.
The call for civility was partly due to local GOP political tensions during the March primary where two candidates accused the other of assault during early voting at the County Annex.
Neither candidate faced charges as the cases were rejected for insufficient evidence. An Odessa Police Department report details officers were dispatched to a disturbance at the annex on Feb. 22.
GOP Precinct 203 Chair candidate Carmen Wilhite and GOP County Chair candidate Donna Kelm were at the Annex trying to gain support during early voting.
According to the report, Kelm claimed she gently touched Wilhite’s arm to ask her not to falsely claim she was a Democrat and Wilhite, 62, responded by flinging her arm back and grabbing her by the back of her hair. She later sought medical treatment.
Wilhite, however, told police Kelm aggressively grabbed her arm, causing her to throw her arm back to get Kelm to stop touching her, the report stated.
The only witness listed in the police report, Linda Hall, corroborated Kelm’s version of the event.
Hall stated, “Donna did not appear to be threatening or aggressive towards Carmen.”
Kelm went on to defeat Tisha Crow by a vote of 4,954 to 3,775 and Wilhite lost to Ronnie Lewis by a vote of 644 to 233.
Fawcett and Griffis on Friday said the news conference was called to let voters and candidates know there will be a zero tolerance party for misbehavior at the polls and that OPD and the ECSO are stepping up security at all the polling places during early voting and on election day.
“This is an important election, every next election is always going to be the most important election that we see, and so we had a meeting, Sheriff Griffis and OPD Chief Mike Gerke and we discussed how we ensure folks coming to polling locations feel secure and safe,” Fawcett said.
There are five early voting locations including the Annex, UTPB’s D. Kirk Edwards Family Human Performance Center, Kellus Turner Park, Odessa College’s Sports Center and Salinas Park. Locations are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and both Griffis and Fawcett encouraged early voting to avoid election day lines. Those who live in the City of Odessa but in Midland County may vote at the Odessa Country Club.
Fawcett said boundaries will be clearly marked so those campaigning will be aware of where they can and cannot go.
Griffis said it will be closely monitored. Any voter who feels harassed may report it to election judges at each polling place.
Griffis indicated extra personnel will be on hand during early voting and election day. He said he won’t tolerate misbehavior. “No fussing, fighting harassing. Just stand in line and mind your business and vote,” he added.
He also said he believes everyone already knows who they are voting for and there is no need to harass voters at this late date.
“Act civil. Act like you love your neighbor even though you may not vote the same way,” Griffis said.
Both Griffis and Fawcett indicated the national atmosphere is volatile, but so is the local rhetoric.
Fawcett bemoaned the low voter turnout in Ector County and said they don’t want local voters to have a reason not to go and vote.
When asked about the particularly hateful local rhetoric on sites like the Odessa Accountability Page on Facebook Fawcett said, “Let’s talk about the future of Odessa and what we want to bring. Let’s talk about policies and avoid talking about personalities.”
Griffis said he worries more about in-person altercations than social media. Both agreed freedom of speech is important, but indicated the hate speech surrounding some local races is troubling.
Fawcett said recent debates have been mostly congenial and hopes candidates will temper elevated emotions.
Both called for civility and calm.
Odessa GOP Precinct Chair Ronnie Lewis attended the conference saying he wasn’t afraid to talk about the elephant in the room, which is that good local candidates are hard to find when there is so much hate directed at them from social media, particularly from Odessa’s Accountability Project.
Lewis helped Kelm lead the charge that changed the makeup of the local GOP precinct chair group in March.
Lewis went on to call out several elected officials for not standing up against what he called hate from the OAP Facebook. Mayor Javier Joven (facing Cal Hendrick in the election), and councilmembers Denise Swanner and Mark Matta. Swanner faces Craig Stoker while Matta faces Eddie Mitchell.
Lewis said all three are guilty of not campaigning in an above-board manner and not calling on the “hate sites and pages” to stop attacking local churches and candidates.
Commissioner Gardner said he knows a lot of people who won’t interact with that page because of the attacks.
“Mayor Joven, Denise Swanner and Mark Marta have never condemned those Facebook profiles, not once,” Lewis said.
He said Swanner went so far as to say she was also a victim of online attacks during a debate this week. But Lewis went on to say it is her opponent Craig Stoker who has been attacked. He also called out Joven for claiming during a debate that he didn’t know who was behind the Save Odessa PAC when he is listed as a follower of their Facebook page.
OTHER ELECTION MATTERS
Odessa Chamber of Commerce CEO/President Renee Earls on Friday said she has called on the local person listed on the Save Odessa PAC to stop using a logo that looks very similar to the Chamber’s longtime logo.
“I’ve been contacted a few times this week questioning the use of our Chamber logo or partial logo on a current Political Action Committee website and printed material. Our Chamber has no connection to this PAC. Our Chamber By-Laws prohibit our organization to endorse any political candidates as we are non-partisan,” Earls said. “It’s unfortunate that this could lead the reader to believe the Chamber is associated with this, and also highly possible that was the intention all along. I have contacted the local person listed on the State’s PAC registry for clarification, but no response yet.”
