The Commissioners Court must budget for the adequate staffing of the voter registrar's office. In those instances when an unpredicted and unpredictable workload cannot be handled by the permanent voter registration staff, the Agency may approve, on a case-by-case basis, the use of Chapter 19 funds for the employment of temporary personnel in the voter registration office. In order to receive Chapter 19 funding for this purpose, the voter registrar must submit an originally and manually signed Chapter 19 Purchase Voucher Form, timesheet signed by both the temporary employee and his/her supervisor, and a description of duties performed by the temporary employee(s). These temporary personnel may be used only for special projects related to voter registration and not for the replacement of permanent full-time or part-time employees. Permanent full-time and part-time county employees may not be compensated with Chapter 19 funds. The voter registrar may have Chapter 19 funded temporary staffing a maximum of any 26 weeks out of the 52-week state fiscal year (September 1 through August 31). For example, if Employee A works one week and Employee B works the next week, the county is allowed only 24 more weeks of Chapter 19 funded temporary personnel. However, if the county employs 15 temporaries in the same week, this would count as only one week of the 26-week allowance. For tracking purposes, working one day of one week counts the same as working an entire week. For example, if Employee C works Monday only, it will count as one week of the 26-week Chapter 19 allowance. The Agency does not issue tax forms to temporary employees funded with Chapter 19 funds. For this reason, the Agency recommends that temporary employment agencies be used if available. The voter registrar should discuss the tax implications of using temporary personnel with the county auditor. The fee or rate of pay to be paid to temporary employees must reflect the fee or rate prevailing in the locale for the same or similar services. Work related injuries to temporary personnel hired with Chapter 19 funds are not the liability of the Agency.

Source Note:The provisions of this §81.22 adopted to be effective October 1, 1995, 20 TexReg 7277.