BIG SPRING, Texas — While Election Day is usually known for different races, Big Spring residents aren't voting to put someone in office this year. Instead, residents will be voting on several different propositions.
According to Cody Hughes, city councilor for district 3, the city charter hasn't been revised in roughly 50 years. The propositions on the ballot give voters a chance to make some changes.
"It was written in the '20s, well before me or you were alive, and it hasn’t been revised since the '70s, which is before I was alive," Hughes said. "It was just time. It’s just time to make some meaningful changes and clarify some things."
One of the biggest items on the ballot involves putting gender neutral pronouns on the city charter.
"It’s really adding everywhere 'councilman' appears is it’s changing that to 'council person' or 'council member' or adding the words 'and/or' 'councilwoman,' and so it’s just updating language," Hughes said. "You know, women have been able to vote for close to 100 years now, might as well be able to include them in our charter."
Another proposition would allow people to get more involved in what could be placed on a ballot.
"What happened in Lubbock the last election cycle, when the city council refused to put the equivalent of the heartbeat bill in the city code, and the citizens went out they got enough signatures, they put it on the ballot," Hughes said. "That’s initiative, and that’s something that citizens of Big Spring could not do because it’s not in our charter."
Big Spring residents may also remember the recall election in August 2020, in which the mayor and two councilors went through the recall process. There is a proposition that would lower the required number of signatures and voters from 35% of voters that voted for a councilor or mayor to 7%.
"So we’re dropping the requirements for the recall and making it easier, hopefully making it easier if the voters are unhappy with one of us, to be able to get rid of us," Hughes said.
Other propositions include creating a charter review committee that looks at the charter every four years to keep things up to date, clarifying term limits for elected officials and reducing the number of councilors needed to to call a special election from three to one.