Council vote brings city in line with county on polling places

The city of San Marcos has amended its election ordinance for Nov. 6 to match the county’s new early voting schedule and Election Day polling places.

At a special meeting Tuesday evening, the city council voted to amend the city’s ordinance to include three early voting locations that will be open today and tomorrow and one new Election Day polling place. The county, facing pressure from the Texas Civil Rights Project, reopened early voting locations on the Texas State University campus and the Live Oak clinic/health department in San Marcos and opened an early voting spot in north Hays County at the Belterra Welcome Center. 

City Clerk Jamie Lee Case explained that the state’s election code specifies that the county’s four precincts have to have the same number of early voting locations. To maintain balance in the county after meeting the Texas Civil Rights Project’s demand to provide more chances for early voting at Texas State, which fell into Precinct 3, the additional locations had to be opened in Precinct 1 (Live Oak) and Precinct 4 (Belterra). 

“The Election Code is very specific,” Case explained to the council. 

In addition, because there are more than 500 registered voters in election precinct 334, which typically shares an Election Day polling location with two other precincts, 334 will get its own polling site on Nov. 6: the LBJ Student Center on campus.

City Attorney Michael Cosentino explained the necessity of changing the city’s election ordinance to match the county’s.

“If we weren’t to take the same action as the county, someone could possibly challenge the outcome of the election,” he said.

Because voters can cast ballots at any early voting location in the county, Cosentino explained, if the city does not include the three early voting locations the county added for today and tomorrow, any ballots cast at those locations by San Marcos voters could be called into question.

“We need to take action before Thursday, which is when those three additional locations are going to open,” he said.

Council members Saul Gonzales and Jane Hughson voiced concerns about having to make the changes, especially moving election precinct 334’s polling place from its usual location at Crockett Elementary School. Gonzales asked if everyone who votes in 334 has access to the LBJ Student Center, and Hughson pointed out the new location is “a location where there isn’t available parking.”

“To me, that’s an issue for anybody who doesn’t live on campus,” she said.

Case noted that 334 is specifically the Texas State campus and several multifamily apartment complexes.

“There’s no single family residents who live there in that precinct,” she said.

Case said that because there might be people who live in those complexes who are not students, she has sent emails to the management at those complexes to make sure all residents are aware of the Election Day polling place. She said she is also working with Joanne Smith, dean of students at Texas State, to work out parking arrangements for voters. 

Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Prewitt questioned changing the 334 polling location in the middle of the election cycle and wondered why the county did not know at the start of the cycle that there were more than 500 registered voters there.

“I don’t have an answer for why it wasn’t pulled out in August,” Case said.

Case said there is a tool on the city website that will help people find their Election Day polling locations. Voters can type in their home addresses and see which precinct they are in and where to go to vote.