Turning voters away at the polls is unacceptable

Editor,

Re: “County proclaims Election Worker Appreciation Month” March 3, 2019 

While many poll workers and election judges conduct our elections without flaw or error, that has not been my experience voting here in Hays County. I am a student at Texas State University and therefore vote at the LBJ Student Center on campus. The first day of early voting in the 2018 midterm elections, the election judges on campus initially put the 100 foot marker indicating where campaign staff could no longer hand out literature to incoming voters in the wrong place. Secondly, there were numerous reports during the days of early voting of students being turned away by poll workers at Texas State University’s polling places because the address on their ID did not match the address listed on the official list of eligible voters for Hays County. This is in direct violation to section 63.001 (c) (c-1) of the Texas Election Code which states that an election judge may not turn someone away because the address on their acceptable form of ID does not match the address on the list of registered voters. The Texas Legislature and counties across Texas must invest more time, money and resources into making sure that personnel at voting locations are better informed on the rules and regulations as it related to voting. Any unwarranted human error on the part of an election judges causing a person to be turned away from the polls is unacceptable. We must do better Hays County!

Michael Clarke

San Marcos