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State Redistricting Means Many New Precincts, Officials Encourage Early Voting

Posted byHoumanitarian

(Mike Morris, Houston Chronicle)
Recent state redistricting will require about 20 percent of Harris County voters to cast ballots at new polling locations on Election Day, County Clerk Stan Stanart estimated Monday. That makes early voting – when voters can cast ballots at any of 37 locations countywide – even more important to avoid Election Day confusion, he and other county officials said.

Stanart and Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack pushed the importance and convenience of early voting on Monday at a news conference with Clear Channel vice president Lee Vela, whose company has donated free space on 44 billboards to promote early voting. The billboards tout early voting dates, Oct. 22 to Nov. 2, as well as HarrisVotes.com, the clerk’s election information website.

“Do not wait until the last two days of early voting. Do not wait until the last two hours of Election Day to go vote. Go vote early and let your vote be counted,” Stanart said. “By voting early you can avoid any conflict of worrying about where do you go vote. It’s easier to

More: Harris County, Clear Channel spreading the word on early voting (KRIV 26 News)

participate in the process by simply voting early.”      […]

Texas’ recent legislative and congressional redistricting lines were set by a federal court, which had ruled the Legislature’s chosen maps discriminated against minorities. The court’s map divided some individual voting precincts into two or three pieces, said Assistant County Attorney Doug Ray.

Because state law prevents voting precincts from being split between congressional or legislative districts, many had to be consolidated in new ways for the Nov. 6 election, Ray said, shifting many polling places. Stanart stressed that his office cannot prevent these changes.

“It’s best to vote the very first week of early voting, because the second week, historically, more people will show up. It’s much easier to vote early in person,” Radack said. “Election Day is unpredictable. It may be raining, it may be cold, the lines will be long. Regardless of your party, we want people to come out and vote, and we urge you to vote early.”
(Read more of this story at Houston Chronicle)

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