Appointments come after a July 8 Fort Bend County Commissioners Court meeting, where a 3-2 vote approved the creation of the committee, which will allow the public to advise the court on redistricting. Precinct 2 Commissioner Dexter McCoy and Precinct 4 Commissioner Grady Prestage cast the dissenting votes.
The backstory
The move comes after several debates about how to draw county voter precincts this year, following a letter from state Rep. Matt Morgan, R-Richmond, saying 37 of 174 of the county’s voter precincts during the November election did not meet state population requirements. In the letter, he urged commissioners to take immediate action to “uphold the integrity of the electoral process.”
State law requires counties with populations over 100,000 to contain no less than 100 and no more than 5,000 voters in each precinct.
Zooming in
Other appointees to the committee include:
- Robert Beham, second vice chairman for Fort Bend County Republican Party (appointed by George)
- Wendy Duncan, who ran for Precinct 3 commissioner in 2020 (appointed by Precinct 1 Commissioner Vincent Morales)
- Ryan Yokubaitis, Pecan Grove Municipal Utility District president (appointed by Morales)
- Upendra Sahu, assistant secretary for Fort Bend County Levee Improvement District (appointed by Precinct 3 commissioner Andy Meyers)
- Mike Gibson, former chairman for Fort Bend County Republican Party (appointed by Meyers)
“I don’t know how we’re supposed to participate in a process when legitimate questions have not been answered,” McCoy said.
Looking ahead
County officials declined to comment on when and where the committee will meet.
