Council Members Luke Orlando, Trent Perez and Adrian Hernandez voted to move the election. Council Members Gary Moore and Woody Owens—both candidates in the upcoming election—abstained from voting. Council Members Tony Carbone and David Little were absent from the meeting.
Several council members argued that it would be unsafe for voters to come to the polls to vote in May in the midst of the coronavirus.
“I feel very strongly that holding this in three weeks is asking our voters ... it’s asking our volunteers, it’s asking the poll workers to play Russian roulette with their health and with their lives to choose to be a part of the democratic process to choose the leaders of this city,” Orlando said. “That’s not a bet I am willing to make or a request I am willing to ask of them.”
With its vote, the council also added a resolution to ask Brazoria County to move all May elections within the county to November for the health of the citizens.
