Voting centers plan well received

A public hearing on countywide voting centers drew around two dozen speakers, and everyone was in favor of moving to the voting center system.

Adopting the state’s countywide voting system would allow voters to cast their ballots at any polling place in the county on Election Day instead of at their specific precinct polling place — much like during early voting. As part of the application to join the program, the county had to hold several public hearings on the idea. The final public hearing was held during the Hays County Commissioners Court meeting on Tuesday.

The lone voice speaking out against voting centers came during public comments at the beginning of Tuesday’s commissioners court meeting. Sam Brannon voiced concerns about the proposed system, stating that there were too many things wrong with the system to cover in the three minutes he was allotted to speak. He said that the change to countywide voting would encourage uninformed voters to turn out, would reduce the number of polling places and would take voting out of the hands of the people and “make it a system.” Brannon also implied that the county’s outreach efforts about previous public meetings were insufficient and favored the county Democratic Party.

However, at least 20 people had signed up to speak during Tuesday’s public hearing — so many people, in fact, that the commissioners ran out of signup papers.

“We have a bona fide stack of people signed up to speak,” Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra said. “I did the math — it’s more than an hour.” 

Becerra said that the level of engagement was “a genuine blessing” but asked speakers to make efficient use of their time.

Jennifer Anderson, Hays County elections administrator, spoke before the members of the public, noting that audio of the public hearing is to be included in the county’s application to the state to participate in the program.

“Over the past two months, my office has held two public meetings for all the public,” she said, “geared toward all public.”

The county and the different political jurisdictions within the county did press releases and community engagement to inform voters about the voting centers and the meetings.

“We did a lot of outreach to let people know about these public hearings,” she said.

Anderson also noted that the group charged with determining locations for voting centers has assembled and is working on identifying criteria and locations. She said the county hopes to use as many existing voting locations as possible.

“Where we can use those, and where they qualify under the program, we will continue to use those,” she said.

A steady stream of speakers from all around the county — Kyle, Buda, Dripping Springs, Wimberley and San Marcos— took to the podium in the commissioners court to voice support for the switch to countywide voting. 

Donna Haschke, a resident of Buda and chair of the Hays County Democratic Party, said that she was speaking not because of her political affiliation but because she is a citizen concerned about low voter turnout.

“I think vote centers on Election Day will certainly enhance our voting participation and opportunity,” she said. “... There are no down sides to voting centers. Let the people vote.”

Lucy Johnson, who said she recently moved to San Marcos but has lived in Hays County most of her life, said that sometimes voters aren’t sure where they need to go on Election Day.

“I’ve watched too many times as people waiting hours in line to vote are turned away because they’re not in the right precinct,” she said. “... Thank goodness I have a car and can drive to the Hays County Government Center to vote early. Not everyone has that opportunity.”

San Marcos resident Nicholas Hoover, who said he has worked several elections, added, “It is very discouraging to have to turn people away because they’ve come to the wrong precinct. … I think many people will have this problem solved by having these voting centers around the county.” 

Several Texas State University students spoke as well, stating that voting centers would give students better access to voting. Kayla Thompson, a first-year student at Texas State, said that she is a conservative student who belongs to several conservative student organizations.

“I’m saying this to emphasize that this is nonpartisan legislation,” she said.

Thompson also said that low voter turnout is “completely unacceptable” and that providing a permanent voting location on campus rather than one that is available for a few days of early voting would let “the most politically inclined generation” cast their ballots more easily. 

A representative from MOVE Texas, an organization that encourages voter engagement, noted that partisan votes don’t change in counties that use the countywide voting system. Brandon James used Lubbock County as an example of a Texas county that moved to the new system. Hardly a liberal area, Lubbock County remained conservative after the switch.

“Voting centers do not correlate with votes leaning one direction or another,” James said.

The last speaker was Linda Calvert, a Wimberley resident and head of the League of Women Voters of Hays County. Calvert said that the League supports voting centers on campus as part of the voting program but is concerned that population growth — which led to the formation of new voting precincts recently — might make it difficult to have sufficient voting centers.

Nonetheless, she said, “Making it easier to vote is a step in the right direction.”