Judge denies taxpayers union's restraining order opposing Austin ISD bond ballot language

In a Travis County Civil Court hearing April 26, Judge Orlinda Naranjo denied a Travis County Taxpayers Union request for a temporary restraining order against Austin ISD and Dana DeBeauvoir in her official capacity as Travis County clerk.

Michael Winn, election division director for the Travis County clerk, explained that the restraining order aimed to stop or delay the AISD bond election because of unclear ballot language.

The TCTU filed a lawsuit April 23 against AISD stating that the ballot language for the district's $892 million bond election excludes information required by the Texas Education Code, specifically the maximum property tax rate levied on residents and whether the tax rate has an "upper limit." The TCTU has also filed other ethics complaints against AISD related to the bond election, TCTU Treasurer Don Zimmerman said.

Although early voting officially begins April 29, Winn said the Travis County elections office has already received 23 mail-in ballots.

"The mailed ballot process is part of early voting," Winn said. "That started March 27 that ballots were mailed out to military and overseas and those who are qualified for the absentee ballot-by-mail system."

Zimmerman said the TCTU did not want to stop the election because that would invalidate those ballots.

In an AISD statement, the district said Naranjo found the request for a temporary restraining order without merit.

"[The judge] denied the order because the election was already in progress," Zimmerman said. "We said we'd rather amend the suit so that we'll wait until voting is over, and then we're going to challenge the election because the ballot language was illegal. The judge made no rulings on the merits of the case and our indication ... is that our case does have merit, and we're going to pick it up after the election is over."

Early voting begins April 29, and election day is May 11.