Elections office takes mail-in voting into own hands

Hays County Elections Administrator Jennifer Anderson plans to mail ballots directly from their office in San Marcos to voters instead of working with a company in Arizona for fear of mailing delays from out of state. 

The Hays County Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to rescind the contract they awarded Runbeck Election Services for election ballot printing, insertion and mailing services at the request of Anderson. 

 “I don’t have any fear that the post office isn’t going to handle the mail properly,” Anderson said. “I’ve been on many calls with the regional post office and at the state and federal level and every indication I have is that they are working diligently to handle mail ballots efficiently.”

Anderson had not however been connected with anyone with the State of Arizona’s postal service and was not comfortable with any potential for delays for ballots coming from out of state, potentially leading to voters receiving their ballots later than usual.

Hays County has so far processed 7,954 applications for voting by mail. 

“We do have quite a few more people voting by mail than we have in the past,” said Anderson. “If they qualify, they should do it now so they are in the first round of ballots. Don’t wait until deadline dates.”  

The elections office expects long lines across all polling locations and more ballots by mail than ever before. 

Based on the 2016 and 2018 elections, the elections office was projecting 10,000 mail-in ballots, but now anticipate as many as 25,000 if all voters over the age of 65 vote by mail.

Currently 146,040 Hays County residents are registered to vote. Of that, 27,956 are over the age of 65, which means they qualify to vote by mail. 

Hays County’s Act Now 2020 campaign encourages preparing for election day today. This means registering to vote, registering to vote by mail if you qualify, reviewing sample ballots, asking questions, making decisions and most importantly, voting early. 

Applying now to vote by mail would allow the voter to receive their ballot sometime after Sept. 19. 

After mailing in a ballot, there are a number of things voters can do to ensure their ballot is counted. 

The Hays County Elections Office posts the names of ballots they have received to their website daily. Anderson says if your name hasn’t been posted within a week of mailing it in, you can call the post office. Voters also have the option to hand deliver their ballot to the elections office in the Hays County Government Building with a valid ID. 

The elections office is also looking into intelligent bar codes which would allow voters to track where their ballot was: at their home, in route, at the post office or at the elections office.

If the office does not receive the ballot, a voter can still go to a polling place to submit a provisional ballot that will be counted if the mail-in ballot is not found. 

Anderson emphasizes the major cause for concern of not being counted this election is not the postal service causing delays, but is not taking advantage of early voting or mailing in ballots as soon as possible with such high turnout expected.

For in person voting, the elections office has taken steps to make voting contactless by handing out gloves for voting and by sanitizing the equipment every ten minutes. 

The commissioners also discussed adding another polling location to the Texas State University but delayed the conversation after other commissioners advocated for additional polling centers in all precincts and Anderson indicated a lack of necessary supplies and staffing at this point.