Of politics, voting and ice cream

Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector Bruce Elfant held his 24th Annual Ice Cream Social on Sunday, with the proceeds going to increasing voter registration in Travis County. Elfant told the Austin Monitor, “We’re 29,000 voters away from having 90 percent registration in Travis County. And we’re going to get there.” He added, “We’re going to hit 90 percent for the first time ever, and then the hope is that 70 percent will decide to vote.” Elfant’s ice cream social is one of the highlights of the political calendar for many Democrats, who will be dismayed to learn that after his 25th ice cream social next year, Elfant plans to call it quits — on the ice cream, not being tax assessor-collector or registering voters. Elfant said the social, whose ice cream is homemade by volunteers, is too much work and that his wife wants him to stop eating the confection.