My prepared comments for tonight’s Grapevine City Council Meeting:

My name is Kathleen Thompson. I’m here tonight as a disappointed and concerned Grapevine resident, urging each of you to vote no on item 6 of the agenda, banning free speech and voter greeting at Grapevine’s municipal voting site, the Community Activities Center, during early voting.

This is a First Amendment issue. We all have the right to poll greet for any candidate or issue being voted on here in Grapevine, as long as that political speech takes place outside the poll-greeting setback, enacted under federal voting rights law. 

This proposed ordinance states the CAC is not traditionally a public forum, which is an absolute untruth. For as long as I have lived in Grapevine, the parking lot of the CAC has been used to hold candidate campaign tents and poll greeting to voters and their families.

The agenda says Councilwoman Spencer, who is up for reelection soon, brought up this offensive proposition. 

Just this summer, Councilwoman Spencer attempted to move our municipal voting site from the Community Activities Center to the smaller and less familiar Bessie Mitchell House at the Botanical Gardens. 

Good sense prevailed and other council members urged greater voter participation, not measures to suppress turnout. 

We do not live in a large metropolis, where city council candidates or ballot measures get TV airtime. Direct voter contact at the polls, during early voting and on Election Day is a large part of voter education. 

This attempt to muzzle protected free political speech is wrong and a waste of taxpayer dollars. 

Please vote no on item 6, banning free speech at the Community Activities Center.