Let's DU the Austin American Statesman (especially Texans!) - Need Help!

[crispini]

(crossposted from Burnt Orange Report -- I am not the author)

Austin American-Statesman will not post precinct voting locations unless County pays for space... (+)
by: CleanAir
Wed Feb 27, 2008 at 08:21 AM CST

I understand from Sarah Eckhardt, Travis County Commissioner, that the Austin American-Statesman has made a decision to not print election day precinct locations unless Travis County or another organization pays the Statesman $16,000.00 to publish this information. It appears this is the 1st time the Statesman has ever charged for posting this basic information.

(snip)
This morning I spoke with Michael Winn, Manager with the Travis County Clerk's office, and he confirmed that the statement I was told by Sarah is correct.

(snip)
Please help to socialize this issue. We must minimize any obstacle to getting out the vote. The Statesman's decision to not print this information is very disappointing.

You can reach Rich Oppel's office at the Statesman at 512-445-3664.

David Kobierowski
[e-mail]

http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=5170

Let's DU the Austin American Statesman -- check in if you can call, and let us know what you find out.

Go Dems! Please :kick: and R! :kick:

[crispini]

1. .

:kick:

[WolverineDG]

2. WTF???

This is public information, not a damned ad! :nuke:

dg

[crispini]

3. Exactly.

Sonias called, said they would "get back to her." :eyes:

[Why Syzygy]

4. kick

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. I hadn't seen that yet.

Thanks for the heads up. That's bullshit!

[crispini]

6. Just needs one more rec!

:kick:

[bigbrother05]

7. This is crazy

My voting place is different than my caucus place, So went to O headquarters to find out.
I will be calling, this is public info

[crispini]

8. Let us know what you find out!

:kick:

[bigbrother05]

9. The paper is publishing the polling places on-line

Here's the site:

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/local/elections_local.html#pollingplaces

We've been told that the caucus is held at the election day precinct polling place (not the early voting location) at 7:15 pm (about 15 mins after the polls close).

There was also a message from the editor addressing the $16K question (can be found at the same site). Basically, the paper had gotten away from putting the polling places in the print version starting in 2005. Seems that someone had asked about taking out an ad to list the polling/caucus locations and were told that an ad would cost $16K.

[crispini]

10. Thanks for finding that out.

I'm still not sure that's cool. I'll think about it.