Breckenridge Texan

You want to take a peek online and see who voted at the Stephens County Courthouse in early voting last week? Well, now you can. Maybe you want to know who sent their ballot in by mail or how many people in the county voted each day?  You can do that, too.

A new Texas state law that went into effect in September requires each county to post online how many people voted each day and the names of everyone who voted. It also must include the names of any voters whose ballot was received in the mail that day. All the information is then required to be posted online by 11 a.m. the day after the voting took place.

Under the law, the county has the option to post the information on their own website or they can post a link on the website to the Texas Secretary of State’s website, where the information is available. The Secretary of State’s website has voting information available for all the counties in Texas available online.

Of course, you won’t be able to see how someone voted, just what day they voted and where they voted or if they voted with a mail-in ballot. At the Secretary of State’s website when looking at the information, you can also see other election information about the County, like how many registered voters there are and what percentage of those voters have already voted.

Stephens County Tax Assessor Christie Latham, who also serves as the election coordinator for the county, said the information has always been available to the public, it’s just never been available online where it can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. She said that in the past all anyone had to do was visit her office during business hours and they would have provided them with the information. She said that option is still available, even with the information now posted online.

Latham said that in the past, during early voting on elections where candidates are in competitive races, the candidates will sometimes come in each day and get the names of people who have already voted so they don’t bother them with campaigning.

November 2019 Election

The election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 5, and in Stephens County it will include 10 proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution. Three Texas districts are having special elections for their state representatives, but District 60 is not one of them. Therefore, the proposed amendments will be the only items on the local ballots.

For more details on the propositions, click this link to read the Texas Secretary of State’s explanatory statements about each proposition: 2019-explanatory-statements.

A look at the first week of early voting

Here’s a look at what you’ll learn about last week’s early voting in Stephens County when you log onto the Secretary of State’s website.  A total of 150 people voted at the courthouse between Monday and Friday and three ballots by mail were received during the week. That means 2.8 percent of the 5,471 registered voters in the county voted last week.

You can also also see the daily totals of how many people voted. On Monday 21 people voted, on Tuesday 30, on Wednesday 33, on Thursday 28, and on Friday 38 people voted. There were two ballots received in the mail on Wednesday and one on Friday.

According to Latham, a total of 13 vote by mail ballots had been sent out from her office to voters during this election. She also said that Friday was the deadline for somebody to request a ballot by mail. However, ballots that have already been sent out can still mailed back and received and counted up to three days after election day.

Accessing election information online

Anyone wanting to access the current election information from Stephens County should go to: https://earlyvoting.texas-election.com/Elections/getElectionEVDates.do in their web browser. They then need to choose 2019 NOVEMBER 5TH CONSTITUTIONAL AMEND, in the Select Election box. When the next screen opens, select the date you want information for under Early Voting by Date. A page will open with a table listing all the counties in Texas which are sorted by the number Registered Voters starting with the ones at most on top. Then scroll down to 5,471 and you’ll see information for Stephens County. To see a list of the names of people who have voted click on “Click Here” in the right-hand column. The page will then open a spreadsheet with the names you can download.

Additionally, current information about elections, such as voting dates, voter ID requirements and more, is available on the Stephens County Elections website,  http://www.co.stephens.tx.us/page/stephens.Elections

Voting

Early voting will continue through Friday, Nov. 1, at the Stephens County Courthouse from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

On Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, voting will be held from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m in each Stephens County precinct voting location. To verify your precinct, look on your Voter Registration card or click here to go to the Texas Secretary of State website to check. Those locations are:

Precinct 1
First National Bank Showcase and Tower room
101 E. Walker

Precinct 2
First Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall
1601 W. Elliott

Precinct 3
Breckenridge Chamber of Commerce
100 E. Elm

Precinct 4
BISD Support Center (Bus Barn)
907 U.S. Highway 183 North

Precinct 5
First National Bank Showcase and Tower room
101 E. Walker
* According to a Notice of Consolidated Precinct posted on the Stephens County website, Precinct 5 has been combined with Precinct 1 for this election and will be voting at the First National Bank polling location on Nov. 5.

Story by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan