6 News has been watching for any issues at the polls after early voting kicked off this week. There have only been a few hiccups so far.
TEMPLE, Texas — Early voting kicked off Monday and 6 News has been watching for any issues at the polls since.
Things have been going smoothly with early voting well…for the most part.
Some Texas counties were late on getting out voter registration cards after the state’s redistricting was also experiencing delays. This left many viewers wondering if they can vote without that card.
Fortunately, you can. You just need an accepted photo ID. Read what we found out here.
Some voters also had issues with mail-in ballots.
Counties had to reject mail-in ballots after voters failed to put the same identification numbers on their mail-in ballot applications and on their ballot envelopes. Bell County in particular had to reject several hundred mail-in ballots.
Bell County Spokesman James Stafford said Monday the elections office was constantly working to contact voters and help them correct those ballots.
“I believe they’ve contacted hundreds of applicants to walk them through the process,” Stafford said.
Bell County also wasn’t able to use its annex building in downtown Temple for early voting because of construction happening right across the street. The voting location was moved to the Temple ISD Administration Building at 401 Santa Fe Way, which is just a few blocks to the west.
Some voters liked the change.
“This one is considerably more user-friendly you are just able to walk right in…the building is bigger. It’s just a nice place to come vote,” Jan Boesel said.
6 News also found out about an issue where voter addresses were being included in Bell County’s daily voter roster on the county’s website. Stafford told 6 News Friday this issue was corrected earlier in the week.
While it is unusual to display that information online, Texas Secretary of State Office Spokesman Sam Taylor told 6 News that a voter’s address is, in fact, public information.
According to Taylor, “A voter’s address is part of public information available under Sec. 18.066 of the Texas Election Code. For example, you can see the information that any member of the public can request from the statewide voter registration database here.“
