Early voting is underway in Texas, and several of the state’s largest counties, including Harris, Dallas, and Travis, have reported unprecedented voter turnout.
As voters continue to head to the polls, Courier Texas caught up with Mary Ibarra, who serves as a policy and advocacy strategist on voting rights at the ACLU of Texas, to discuss the importance of getting out to vote, how election officials safeguard your vote, and what to expect once polls close on Election Day, which is Nov. 3.
Hear from her below:
What’s your message to voters who don’t believe our elections are secure?
Mary Ibarra, ACLU of Texas: One of the biggest things to keep in mind is, we haven’t had any changes to voting laws in this the state in many years. So if they’ve voted in previous elections, it’s going to be the same process, the same election administrators, that are running it. Elections are run on a local level, but they report to the state. So there haven’t been any major changes in the processes or the checks and balances that exist. We’re in a heightened political moment right now, so I understand the cautiousness and the wariness, but I think voting despite that, and exercising your right to vote is a great way to take a stand and advocate for you and for your community.
What should voters do if they run into any issues at the polls, such as being turned away, encountering intimidation, etc.?
Before giving up and going home, whether it’s taking an excessively long time or if information that a poll worker is presenting to you seems different than what you know, go ahead and call our 866-OUR-VOTE hotline. There’s different languages available as well if English is not your first language. It’s a nonpartisan group, and we’ve got legal experts to walk you through the process and answer any questions or advocate for you as you’re exercising your right to vote.
Texas is a bit of a tough state to vote in. We’ve got a voter registration deadline a month out from Election Day, we don’t have online voter registration like many other states do, and we’ve seen some issues with some of the voter registrations coming through from DPS at a later time for some of our local election offices. If voters do come across any issues, know that it’s okay, we’re here to help get it resolved and make sure that folks are able to vote confidently.
Why vote early?
I really encourage folks to go out and early vote if you can. That’s when you’ll have the shortest lines. If there’s any issues or you realize that you forgot something like an ID that you need, you can go back and resolve that.
On Election Day, I would expect really long lines throughout the whole day, and so you don’t really have a lot of wiggle room on your schedule.
What can Texans expect once polls are closed?
Expect there to be a bit of a wait election results come in. Especially because of all the high turnout, it is going to take longer to process results, including getting through mail ballots as well. I wouldn’t necessarily expect to have election results right away, or even on election night if it’s really close. For a local race, like a city council race or a county commissioner’s race, you can expect those results to come a little bit faster. But there are over 200 counties, which means there’s thousands of precincts across the state, and each of those precincts have a different ballot, so making sure that all of that is aligned is going to take time.
How do voters know if their ballot has been counted?
Be patient with election workers as they’re processing the results. A lot of it is public knowledge. There’s live streams of ballots being counted that you can watch, all of that is very public facing and transparent on purpose so that folks are aware of what’s going on.
Why does every vote matter?
In order to be a part of democracy and be an active citizen, you have to fully participate in it. I really hope that folks that are sitting on the sidelines right now get motivated by their community and are turning out to vote. If folks are unhappy with how things are going politically or in their community, this is the best and easiest way to take action for change.
It’s really great to see folks excited, and I think having the top of the ticket races be so close is definitely driving a lot of the turnout, but also folks are wanting to take a stand and get more engaged and learn more about why the things that are happening in their community are happening, and how it’s coming about, and it really comes down to your elected officials.
We’re seeing folks become more aware of how decisions made by elected officials are impacting their everyday life.
