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Voting Questions? Surly Poll Workers and Election Helpers Have Answers!

Nice Guy Eddie

By Nice Guy Eddie
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royiv

royiv 9242

Posted
Posted
42 minutes ago, skeeter said:

Live and work in Tarrant County.  Can I early vote at a location close to my work rather than the one assigned to my residence zip code?

Yes. For the entire State of Texas, you can vote at any early voting location that’s located in the county of your residence.

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Iceman

Iceman 2690

Posted
Posted (edited)

Got to polls about 7:57 and walked up to about 20 people in line.  I don't typically go on Day 1, but had to this time because we leave to go out of town in the morning. The early voting process is super sweet as I usually just walk up to no line at all.  Folks at the front of the line said they got there at 7.  OK, I guess. 2 old men at the back the line were already running their mouths about their candidates.  I just wanted them to STFU and do their business.
I was also the youngest person in line by at least 10 years and I'm not exaggerating a bit.  Motherfucker...some of them could not work the machines.  One lady would not submit her ballot because she wanted to keep a record of her vote. The poll worker helped explain it to her and got her on the right track.  I thought of y'all on this thread and gave my thoughts & prayers as to how your first day was gonna go.

Hope it goes better than those first 15 minutes.

Edited by Iceman
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Js1

Js1 85258

Posted
Posted

Also a general rule of thumb -

Just be fucking nice and polite.  These people are volunteering their time to work the polls. They don't want to be assholes to you about your phone and shit. 

They don't like some of the laws that come out of Austin either, but they have to enforce them.  They don't make the rules, so don't give them a hard time. 

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StassneyHorn

StassneyHorn 6573

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, immamac said:

Polls in Hays are fucked up. There can't be more than 150-200 people in line and we are only halfway after an hour. 10 voting machines, math doesn't math on why it's taking this long. 

image.thumb.jpeg.8193b8e9bbf903da932561377b21b7cc.jpegPosting just in case you might be close elsewhere

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Js1

Js1 85258

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, immamac said:

Polls in Hays are fucked up. There can't be more than 150-200 people in line and we are only halfway after an hour. 10 voting machines, math doesn't math on why it's taking this long. 

Office Sloth GIF by Disney Zootopia

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13507

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Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Early voting Day 1 in Texas. Would love to knock it out today but work is preventing it. I should be able to find time Tuesday or Wednesday. Can’t wait.

UPDATE. Found a way to get away from work over lunch and vote. The Ted Cruz trans ads during the UT game got me motivated.  As in motivated to vote against Cruz as quickly as possible. 

Feels great to have that behind me but I want to vote against Cruz and Trump again. 

My ballot was straight blue except I voted for the independent in the RR Commission race. Hawk Dunlap. https://www.tiktok.com/@hawkdunlap He's going to lose but I've loved his social media videos where he's out in west Texas pointing out what a piss poor job the industry and the RR commission is doing with plugged well issues.

Edited by Nice Guy Eddie
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bolverk

bolverk 29646

Posted
Posted

Just now voted to get me some of that D.

csb time:

Spoiler

I decided to ditch Austin and my mortgage and moved back to my ruby-red (75-80% R) West Texas hometown of 25,000 a little over a month ago into the house I grew up. The county (pop. 30,000) has a single site during early voting, which seemed fairly bustling with a full parking lot.

A few local observations:
Folks were really chatty in a line of about 12-15 in front of me, but I think that's because so many of them know each other or are just freakishly neighborly. I overheard a couple of them (not there together) remarking on how they were pleased and proud to see it so busy. One of them responded, "This is a really important election that will change the future of our country."

My long-haired hippie-looking ass couldn't help but chime in and say, "Man, y'all should see the lines in places like Austin, where I just moved here from. The last time I voted in a presidential election down there, I had to wait about an hour and a half and swear the line stretched at least 100 yards through a parking lot, stretching from a Whataburger to behind a grocery store next to the dumpsters, and through a small break in the shopping center to get to the front of the store. But, of course, turn-out is always high down there because people in Austin are really motivated to vote."

The point of my saying it was to serve as a reminder that big liberal cities have lots and lots of voters that could swamp places like my hometown, where they just assume everyone votes just like them. It was a slightly dickish move, I'll admit, but it seemed to serve its purpose as both of them frowned slightly and looked at me like, "Oh..."

I'd guess the voting site had two dozen machines, but only about half of them were occupied. From what I saw in front of me, the demographics were mostly older and roughly 80% Anglo (only two Hispanics), but the county is about 45% Anglo/45% Hispanic. This county typically has fairly low voter participation rates, though. The woman manning the machine that I slipped my voter card into proudly said I was voter #606 for the day.

To give y'all additional perspective of how quick and easy it is to vote in a place like this: I walked out the door, drove five minutes to the polling station, stood in line, voted, and got back home in about 20-25 minutes.

I'm not exactly sure what any of that means from a turnout perspective, but I will say that despite only ever seeing one single Trump bumper sticker in my short time here, the rural red Rs do appear motivated. So don't interpret the lack of Trump signs when y'all travel around the state as a lack of support and motivation.

Once I get completely settled in here, I plan to get involved long-term in helping the sad little local Democratic Party, whose online presence (from the best I can tell) consists of a single, private FB group with only 156 members.

GET. YOUR. ASSES. TO. THE. POLLS.

 

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royiv

royiv 9242

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Posted
25 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Harris County wait times all look to be under 15 minutes this afternoon: https://www.harrisvotes.com/Vote-Centers

They only show 50 locations at a time. Click next page to see many of the suburban early vote centers.

 

Those are wildly inaccurate. West Gray showed 35 in line when I left the house, approximately 6 blocks away, and there were around 400 in line.

FYI, the numbers are entered manually by one of the people doing check-ins inside. The tablet prompts every 30 minutes asking how many in line. You then pick a range like <10, 10-25, etc. The person sitting inside has zero visibility to how many people are in line outside unless someone goes outside and manually counts so the numbers in HarrisVotes.com can be wildly inaccurate.

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13507

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5 minutes ago, royiv said:

Those are wildly inaccurate. West Gray showed 35 in line when I left the house, approximately 6 blocks away, and there were around 400 in line.

FYI, the numbers are entered manually by one of the people doing check-ins inside. The tablet prompts every 30 minutes asking how many in line. You then pick a range like <10, 10-25, etc. The person sitting inside has zero visibility to how many people are in line outside unless someone goes outside and manually counts so the numbers in HarrisVotes.com can be wildly inaccurate.

well that sucks but I'm happy that to hear people are voting. The posted "people in line" stat was depressing.

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WhatTheBuck

WhatTheBuck 28771

Posted
Posted
On 10/19/2024 at 4:23 PM, royiv said:

Yes. For the entire State of Texas, you can vote at any early voting location that’s located in the county of your residence.

That’s surprising. What kind of voter suppression is that? The Ohio GOP has limited each county to ONLY ONE early voting location and drop box per county. So the 864,000 registered voters of Cuyahoga County (which includes Cleveland) who favor the Democrats, share a single voting location and drop box just like the 8,400 voters in rural Vinton County who tend to vote for Republicans.

A judge recently ruled that voters with disabilities can have anyone deliver their absentee ballot to the drop box, not just close family members. So our Trumpy Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who has proposed eliminating drop boxes altogether, imposed a new rule that if you’re dropping off someone else’s ballot, you can’t put it in the drop box. Now you have to go inside election headquarters (which means during business hours, not 24/7 like the drop box) and fill out a form attesting that you’re either a family member of the absentee voter or, if returning the ballot of a disabled voter, that you’re authorized to do so.

Fuck the Ohio GOP. Fuck Frank LaRose.

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Evil Bill Obrien

Evil Bill Obrien 3256

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

That’s surprising. What kind of voter suppression is that? The Ohio GOP has limited each county to ONLY ONE early voting location and drop box per county. So the 864,000 registered voters of Cuyahoga County (which includes Cleveland) who favor the Democrats, share a single voting location and drop box just like the 8,400 voters in rural Vinton County who tend to vote for Republicans.

A judge recently ruled that voters with disabilities can have anyone deliver their absentee ballot to the drop box, not just close family members. So our Trumpy Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who has proposed eliminating drop boxes altogether, imposed a new rule that if you’re dropping off someone else’s ballot, you can’t put it in the drop box. Now you have to go inside election headquarters (which means during business hours, not 24/7 like the drop box) and fill out a form attesting that you’re either a family member of the absentee voter or, if returning the ballot of a disabled voter, that you’re authorized to do so.

Fuck the Ohio GOP. Fuck Frank LaRose.

At least Ohio lets anyone eligible vote by mail, gotta jump thru so many hoops to do that in Texas... also don't give Kenny Paxton, Hot Wheels and the rest of the Texas GQP Cartel any ideas or we will be down to 1 early vote location and 1 election day vote location per county soon...

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Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand

Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand 13570

Posted
Posted
On 10/19/2024 at 3:23 PM, royiv said:

Yes. For the entire State of Texas, you can vote at any early voting location that’s located in the county of your residence.

Being I'm currently in Harris Co taking care of both parents who have recently been admitted to nursing rehab and willing likely soon be transitioning out, I'm assuming I'll have to make a day trip to Blanco Co where I'm registered to vote.

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royiv

royiv 9242

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Posted
1 minute ago, Al Bundy&#x27;s Napoleon Hand said:

Being I'm currently in Harris Co taking care of both parents who have recently been admitted to nursing rehab and willing likely soon be transitioning out, I'm assuming I'll have to make a day trip to Blanco Co where I'm registered to vote.

Correct.

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Js1

Js1 85258

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Posted
4 hours ago, WhatTheBuck said:

That’s surprising. What kind of voter suppression is that?

I’ve always been surprised that the GOP in Texas never got rid of it. Or effectively only made it M-F, 8-5, and no weekends. It’s always been surprisingly a long period of time, including a full weekend, plus discretion for the county on times. Like Harris County is doing a later early voting on Halloween until 9pm, instead of the usual 7pm

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13507

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Posted (edited)

EDITED to remove a statement that wasn't accurate for every Texas county.

I really don't understand why anyone would wait for election day in Texas cities. On election day you're forced to vote at your precinct and you deal with longer lines. Voting early gives you complete flexibility to location and time, including the ability to delay it to another day if the line is too long. 

Outside of local runoff races, I can't recall the last time I voted on election day.

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13507

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3 hours ago, Js1 said:

I’ve always been surprised that the GOP in Texas never got rid of it. Or effectively only made it M-F, 8-5, and no weekends. It’s always been surprisingly a long period of time, including a full weekend, plus discretion for the county on times. Like Harris County is doing a later early voting on Halloween until 9pm, instead of the usual 7pm

The GOP would absolutely love to eliminate weekends but I believe judges would prevent that given the propensity for a fair number of African Americans voting on Sunday after church. 

Crazy how Harris County previously had one location going 24/7 and others offered drive through voting, but the GOP considered that giving Dems an advantage so that had to be legislatively disallowed. Can't make voting easy.

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royiv

royiv 9242

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1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

On election day you're forced to vote at your precinct

I just want to make sure that we’re not spreading bad info in this thread about helping people vote. The above statement is a county by county statement. It is not a statewide rule. 


Here is a list of counties authorized by the Texas Secretary of State to partcipate in countywide voting along with the year that they became authorized:

Angelina County (2021)

Aransas County (2016)

Archer County (2019) 

Atascosa County (2019)

Austin County (2022)

Bastrop County (2022)

Bee County (2019)

Bell County (2020)

Bexar County (2019)

Blanco County (2023)

Bowie County (2023)

Brazoria County (2015) 

Brazos County (2016)

Brown County (2024) 

Burleson County (2024)

Burnet County (2021)

Callahan County (2014)

Cass County (2024) 

Chambers County (2021)

Cherokee County (2023)

Collin County (2013)

Comal County (2019)

Coryell County (2014) 

Dallas County (2019)

Deaf Smith County (2018) 

DeWitt County (2018) 

Eastland County (2013) 

Ector County (2016) 

Ellis County (2019)

Erath County (2012)

El Paso County (2021)

Fisher County (2021)

Floyd County (2013)

Fort Bend County (2016) 

Gaines County (2012)

Galveston County (2012)

Grayson County (2014) 

Gregg County (2017) 

Grimes County (2017) 

Guadalupe County (2017) 

Harris County (2019)

Harrison County (2022)

Hays County (2019)

Henderson County (2019)

Hidalgo County (2018) 

Hood County (2015) 

Hopkins County (2015) 

Howard County (2019)

Jack County (2018) 

Jefferson County (2014)

Jim Wells County (2022)

Jones County (2019)

Karnes County (2024)

Kaufman County (2018) 

Kendall County (2020)

Lampasas County (2014) 

Lee County (2016)

Liberty County (2022) 

Lubbock County (2012) 

Madison County (2013)

Marion County (2020)

McLennan County (2015) 

Medina County (2016) 

Midland County (2012)

Milam County (2016) 

Montague County (2015) 

Navarro County (2015) 

Nueces County (2017)

Orange County (2023) 

Palo Pinto County (2016) 

Parker County (2015)

Parmer County (2024)

Polk County (2022) 

Potter County (2016) 

Randall County (2014) 

Rockwall County (2022)

Rusk County (2015) 

San Jacinto County (2016) 

San Patricio County (2018) 

Scurry County (2020)

Smith County (2015) 

Somervell County (2021)

Swisher County (2014) 

Tarrant County (2019)

Taylor County (2015) 

Throckmorton County (2017) 

Tom Green County (2015) 

Travis County (2012)

Upshur County (2017) 

Victoria County (2014) 

Walker County (2021)

Webb County (2022)

Wharton County (2015) 

Williamson County (2014) 

Wichita County (2018) 

Young County (2016)

 

 

 

 

 

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Paper_jam

Paper_jam 831

Posted
Posted

I don't know if it's just my internet tubes or whatever, but I haven't been able to connect to any Travis County election-related websites today, (Early voting location maps, wait times, etc..) None of it will load on Edge or Chrome. Too much traffic crash the site/server?

 

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royiv

royiv 9242

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46 minutes ago, Js1 said:

If you see anyone start spreading lies about this 

I saw her initials on my ballot and knew what it was / who it was

 

I attended my mandatory election worker refresher training today and they brought this up at the very beginning of the session. It was also interesting that there was an entire section deescalation and how to deal with voters that have been removed from the voter registration list. These things have not been part of the annual training in the past. One thing that we were instructed to do is not say that something is “a rule” but to specifically reference the Texas Election Code to reinforce that whatever is being questioned is a state law.

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royiv

royiv 9242

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1 hour ago, Paper_jam said:

Is that a statewide thing? I didn't look all that closely, but I didn't notice any initials on my early voting ballot today...

 

Yes, the applicable Texas Election Code is cited in the tweet that Js1 posted.

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El Tri

El Tri 412

Posted
Posted

Question for you all... my daughter is registered to vote in Hays county, but suspended. She now lives in Travis County. I'm reading on the Texas.gov site that she can complete a Limited Ballot application at an early voting place in Travis County... is this correct?

 

"or (if the voter has moved to a new county) completes a Limited Ballot application during Early Voting at the main early voting polling place."

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royiv

royiv 9242

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Posted
30 minutes ago, El Tri said:

Question for you all... my daughter is registered to vote in Hays county, but suspended. She now lives in Travis County. I'm reading on the Texas.gov site that she can complete a Limited Ballot application at an early voting place in Travis County... is this correct?

 

"or (if the voter has moved to a new county) completes a Limited Ballot application during Early Voting at the main early voting polling place."

Correct. She needs to go to the main early voting location in Travis County. She must do this during early voting.

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BrazilHorn

BrazilHorn 6586

Posted
Posted

Went and voted in Austin at House Park site off Enfield/Lamar. 
Got there around 12:45 and waited in line all of 5 mins to get ballot and vote. 
 

Get off your asses and vote. You don’t want to wait til election day. 

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The Original Greaser Bob

The Original Greaser Bob 2819

Posted
Posted

You guys need to vote.  I was surprised at the number of people today who left when told it was a 45-minute wait (Hillcrest and Royal - Royal Lane Baptist Church.)  The GOP wants a clusterfuck so the more you wait the more they are going to get what they want.   

But in general, everyone pleasant at the polling site.    

 

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royiv

royiv 9242

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Posted
5 minutes ago, BurntOrange&amp;White said:

Bexar

Bexar does not have a wait time tracker. FWIW, they’re not super accurate in the counties that do have them. If you’re looking for short wait times, here are the ten slowest voting centers through yesterday’s totals:

Texas A&M University: 331

St Hedwig City Hall: 336

Southside ISD Administration Building: 340

Somerset City Hall: 376

East Central ISD Admin: 386

Palo Alto College: 420

Macedonia Baptist Church: 457

Copernicus Community Center: 472

Our Lady of the Lake University: 478

Frank Garrett Multi Service Center: 509

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jimmyjazz

jimmyjazz 45877

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Posted

Haven't read every post, so forgive me.  I just realized my little registration card in my wallet is expired.  However, I have confirmed my registration is still valid.  I can vote with my passport, right?

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royiv

royiv 9242

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Haven't read every post, so forgive me.  I just realized my little registration card in my wallet is expired.  However, I have confirmed my registration is still valid.  I can vote with my passport, right?

Yes.

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The Original Greaser Bob

The Original Greaser Bob 2819

Posted
Posted

More poll greeting at Royal and Hillcrest at the Baptist church;

Good news:  Lots of women coming out and looking energized telling me "I voted for your guy (I was holding a sign for a D candidate)".  Few thumbs up from some of the guys but that may have been for my tight t-shirt. 

Bad news:  A few women turning around when I told them the wait was 15 minutes and them saying "I don't have 15 minutes to wait."

Most relevant news:  Surprising amount of talent voting. 

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