San Marcos Area Democrats

The Precinct Chair

from the Texas Democratic Party website

Download the full file (pdf) here.

The office of Precinct Chair is among the most important in the entire Democratic Party. The Precinct Chairs and the County Chair make up the CEC, which is the governing body of the County Democratic Party.

When voting precincts are organized, the Democratic vote is maximized and our candidates win elections. In addition to statutory responsibilities for the conduct of Primary elections and the responsibilities under State Party Rules for organizing the county General election campaign effort, the Precinct Chair is responsible for canvassing the voting precinct and coordinating all campaign work in that precinct, arranging coffees, recruiting volunteers, and training and directing those volunteers. The Precinct Chair carries out all the Party's strategies in the voting precinct. A good Precinct Chair is the soul of the Party.

The Precinct Chair gets the Party's message to the individual and carries out the Party's program to get the voters to the polls on Election Day. The Precinct Chair must be depended on to carry out responsibilities capably and efficiently. He or she should be an outgoing person who likes people because the basis of all precinct organization is person-to-person contact. If an elected Precinct Chair is unable or unwilling to do the work, a precinct coordinator should be chosen to carry on the political work in the voting precinct.

There is no single more important job for a Democratic County Chair than to recruit enthusiastic, responsible people to serve as Precinct Chairs or precinct coordinators in every voting precinct in the county. Active Precinct Chairs will be the core of a winning campaign!

Precinct Chair Duties and Responsibilities/Organizing the Precinct

An active, effective Precinct Chair makes a huge difference in the success of the Party and our candidates. What follows is a very brief list of the kinds of things a Precinct Chair can and should do that will make a real difference in electing Democrats. The most important things for a Precinct Chair to remember that it is his/her duty to (1) organize the voting precinct, (2) represent the voting precinct before the CEC, and (3) sit as a member of the CEC.

1. Organize and Canvass Your Precinct: Get a list of voters in your precinct from your County Chair. You can access voter information for your voting precinct by using the State Party on-line Voter Management System. Contact your County Chair for details. Design a program to involve friends or other strong Democrats to act as volunteers to hold "block parties," to recruit volunteers, to do door-to-door or phone canvassing, and to carry out the precinct canvassing/organizational program described in this manual.

2. Know Your Precinct: Get a voter precinct map from your County Clerk or elections office. Drive around your precinct and learn its geographical boundaries, the characteristics of the neighborhood, places to have meetings, distribute literature, register voters, etc.

3. Know the People in Your Precinct: A Precinct Chair can be a "bridge" or liaison between the people in the community and elected officials. Get to know people through neighborhood, civic, church or other community activities. As the person who helps organize and elect people, the Precinct Chair can go to the County Commissioner or legislator to help a citizen or community group to secure appropriate assistance with a particular problem or concern.

4. Know the Law and the Rules: Learn the Texas Election Law and the Rules of the Texas Democratic Party.

5. Find Election Judge for your Precinct: The Precinct Chair assists the County Party in securing an Election Judge or Alternate Election Judge for your voting precinct. Your duties during elections are to get our people to the polls. Ideally, the responsibility of the Precinct Chair is to turn out the vote, you should be wherever you are most useful, inside the polls or outside working your precinct.

6. Represent Precinct to the CEC: Attendance at ALL called CEC meetings is ESSENTIAL!

How Do I Become a Precinct Chair?

A Precinct Chair is a publicly elected party official. The Precinct Chair is elected by the Democratic voters in a voting precinct in the first (general) primary election (or in the runoff election, if no candidate gets a majority in the first primary). The names of candidates for Precinct Chair in a precinct are on the Democratic primary ballot for that precinct.

Term of Office

A Precinct Chair’s term of office begins on the 20th day following the runoff primary and continues for two years, or until a successor is elected or appointed and certified.

Qualifications

To be eligible for the office of Precinct Chair, an individual must be:

• 18 years of age or older

• A qualified voter who has voted in the latest Texas Democratic primary (not counting runoffs) in the voting year

• A resident of the voting precinct from which he or she is seeking election

• Not a candidate for or holder of an elective office of the federal, state, or county government

Filing To Run for Precinct Chair

A qualified individual interested in running for Precinct Chair must obtain a filing form from the County Chair. Applications can be submitted beginning in early October before a general election year, and must be submitted by 6:00 p.m. on the filing deadline in January—almost always January 2, unless January 2 falls on a weekend or legal holiday, but be sure to check! An application may be mailed to the County Chair but must be received (not postmarked) by the filing deadline.

Write-in votes for Precinct Chair are permitted in the first primary, whether or not there are other candidates on the ballot.Write-in votes for Precinct Chair are not permitted in the runoff.

For the schedule for the 2006 Primary election, visit the Texas Secretary of State's website here.

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