Harrison County awaits state approval for county-wide voting

MARSHALL, Texas (KLTV) - The Harrison County Commissioners along with the Elections Administrator have requested the implementation of County-wide voting so residents will be able to vote in any precinct. The court voted on Tuesday to invest $42,650 for curbside voting which will help in this endeavor.

Recently the Harrison County Commissioner’s court submitted a request to the state for county-wide voting so residents will be able to vote in any precinct. Harrison County Elections Administrator Donald Robinette says it all comes down to state approval of their application.

“It would aid the voters in that on election days they would not have to be in a particular precinct in order to vote, they could go anywhere,” Robinette said.

It’s something that’s been kicked around for some time.

“The Commissioners have been in agreement now for two years. And so last year we were able to purchase the new equipment that would be necessary. It’s electronic ballot marking equipment that would allow the voter to vote at a polling place creating their own ballot,” Robinette said.

Robinette says the state only accepts four applications from counties less than a hundred thousand per election.

“Whenever I saw that they didn’t have any in at the time, I thought I’m going to get an application in here if it’s the last day. But it was already like a couple days away from the deadline,” Robinette said.

So he made a request for an extension. They were granted two weeks, and they got the application in.

“Hopefully it will help voters to be happy, or at least not have as much to complain about, as sometimes happens, they would be able to vote anywhere even on the primary, even on election day,” Robinette said.

Harrison County is now waiting on a response for the request. Robinette adds that he believes county wide voting would attract more residents to cast their ballots during the primaries and beyond.

Robinette says since the census count made the county draw new precinct boundaries, and if the county-wide voting request doesn’t go through some residents would have to vote in a different location.

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