The Hays County Commissioners Court approved early voting times and locations for the upcoming November election.
Early voting for the Nov. 8 election will take place from 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Oct 24-28; 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct, 29; and 12 p.m.-6 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30. Early voting will continue from Oct. 31-Nov. 4 between 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
The commissioners approved early voting locations during Tuesday's meeting and voted to include an additional location in Uhland at the Hays CISD Transportation Office after concerns arose from community members about the lack of a location in the northeast side of the county.
Multiple citizens spoke in public comment about the lack of a location in the northeast side. Dr. Mark Trahan, Hays County Democratic Party chair, brought up problems he heard during an elections board meeting where the locations were deliberated. He highlighted discussions regarding the addition of Hays CISD Transportation Office as an early voting location and is set to only serve as an election day polling place in November.
“I heard Republican Chair Bob Parks and Sheriff Gary Cutler state that there was not enough vote [at the Hays CISD Transportation Office] and it wasn’t that important. That’s what I heard,” Trahan said. “And so, I want to speak to that because I took a look at the numbers and I looked it up at the primary election, the last election we had, and I found that actually for that particular location there were 422 votes on election day. That was 3.2% of the countywide percentage of votes. That was the same amount of votes as the Arnold Transportation Building on I-35. It was also more votes than Yarrington, Live Oak and Broadway, which are all early voting locations stipulated in this coming election. So, the idea that it doesn’t cast enough votes is just factually inaccurate.”
Bob Parks, Hays County Republican Party chair, said there were already enough locations located on the east side of the county, including the nine locations located throughout the Interstate 35 corridor.
“I got my box of hightech Cheerios, and I laid the map of the county down and I put a Cheerio on all of the early-voting locations,” Parks said. “As you know, [Elections Administrator] Jennifer [Doinoff] has separated this by precinct. It’s interesting to notice that the 13 early-voting locations, two of them are located in Wimberley, two are located in Drippings Springs and nine of them are located immediately on the I-35 corridor, which geographically sits toward the east side of the county.
“So, what are we doing here? We’re talking about an additional location where we already have nine locations,” Parks added. “If we’re going to do that philosophy, to be fair to all of the people in the county which each of you represent, I suggest that we put early-voting stations out that are out on [FM] 32, out to close to Devil’s Backbone, maybe on [FM] 1826 by the Travis County line … because all of those people have to travel further to get to a voting station right now that anyone does in Uhland.”
Mary Earls, Hays County League of Women Voters board president, advocated for the commissioners court to add a location on the east side.
“I know this does not go on in Hays County but we cannot have voter suppression,” Earls said. “We just can’t do it, that’s not the Hays County way … I know it’s a hard job to figure out how to balance everything out but I want to encourage you to do the right thing. It’s always better and best to do the right things when dealing with people’s rights. The folks on the east side of this county have the right to vote. So, this morning let’s do what you need to do, because it’ll be on your consciousness, you don’t want people calling your office, saying ‘What happened to my polling place? I went there and there was nothing there. I couldn’t vote.’ I encourage you, this morning, to just try to do the best thing for the people of Hays County.”
Following public comment, Commissioner Debbie Ingalsbe made a motion to include the Hays CISD Transportation Office as an earlyvoting location. Commissioner Lon Shell agreed that having a location on State Highway 21 would be beneficial.
“It’s something that we bring up and there are some comments made that I completely understand about having sites that become traditional voting sites,” Shell said. “That would be my reason for supporting the transportation office before a school is because it’s easier for the district to make that available not just this year but in the future that would be better than choosing a school that it seems like every other year we’ve got a school saying they don’t want [early] voting.”
The commissioners unanimously approved adding the Hays CISD Transportation Office as an early-voting location as well as all early polling places for the Nov. 8 election.
Early-voting locations in Dripping Springs include:
In other election-related business, the commissioners approved an order to call an election on Nov. 8 to elect the following county and precinct officers: County District Attorney; County Court at Law #1; County Court at Law #2; County Court at Law #3; County Judge; County Treasurer; Commissioner, Pct. 2; Commissioner, Pct. 4; Justice of the Peace, Pct. 1, Pl 2; Justice of the Peace, Pct. 2; Justice of the Peace, Pct. 3; Justice of the Peace, Pct. 4; and Justice of the Peace, Pct. 5.
For the complete meeting and agenda, visit hayscountytx.com/commissioners-court/court-video.
