The chief deputy in the County Clerk's office is an opposed candidate for another office. Early voting for both primaries takes place ONLY in the county clerk's office.

I know that she may not be involved in her primary; presumably, she should not be invovled in either and should not wear the election identification.

Question - may she continue to work in the office doing work not related to elections?

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney

[This message was edited by Lisa Peterson on 02-06-08 at .]

It may be arguable that your First Assistant County Clerk is the type of policy-making aide that the Elrod-Branti line of cases give the green light to firing on the basis of political intrigue-related reasons. Maybe not. But you might want to look at the Jordan v. Ector County case that came down this week from the Fifth Circuit. You can find it (I hope) at this link.

The deputy will keep her job if she loses the election. The office is thinly staffed and we are trying to create a way to legally keep her working during the 2 weeks of early voting...

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney

Our former chief deputy county clerk who is now our county clerk ran in a contested race for that office and worked during the elections (although not on election business). We did not have any complaints, amazingly enough. We, however, do not conduct early voting inside the clerk's office. It is always in a separate room in the courthouse. Could you move your early voting out of the office?

We already have the federal preclearance for inside the office - do we have time to change that?

I'm thinking...if the candidate handles all the hearings - probate, criminal, juvie - the phone, mail, filings and so forth from the far side of the office away from the voting machines, take down her desk name plate, obviously not wear an ID tag...shouldn't that work?

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney

[This message was edited by Lisa Peterson on 02-06-08 at .]

Forgive my ignorance on this subject but it is not something I usually handle. (Generally the realm of the CA) We have a deputy county clerk that is running for county clerk. She has been working on setting up voting machines, etc. Where do I need to look for guidelines on her involvement in the electoral process?