Lubbock County led the way in Texas for Election Day vote centers nearly 20 years ago. Now the county is trying to rescue them from proposed legislation in the State Capitol to shut them down statewide.
So far, the proposals only outlaw vote centers on Election Day – not early voting. The proposals would force “vote center” counties to increase the number of voting locations, a costly move.
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“It’s been wildly successful in Lubbock County and as it spread around the state, it’s been successful as well,” said Curtis Parrish, county judge.
The Lubbock County Commissioners this week unanimously supported a resolution in favor of vote centers – hoping state lawmakers are paying attention.
“This resolution … will encourage the legislators to not mess with our elections,” Parrish said during the commissioners’ meeting.
“On Election Day, you can go to any of our vote centers that are open – no matter where you live in the county – no matter where you work in the county – you will be able to vote at any vote center. This is what we’ve been doing in Lubbock County. Now for the past 18 years, this will be the 19th year,” Parrish said.
About 100 or so Texas counties use vote centers, said Roxzine Stinson, Lubbock County elections administrator.
If vote centers close
This could cost the county $300,000-$400,000 for new voting machines, according to Roxzine Stinson, Lubbock County elections administrator. But additional machines are just the start. Add in more employees, more storage space for machines and more locations, and Stinson thinks the cost goes well above $500,000.
Instead of 50 vote centers, her office would need to open 85 to 87 voting precincts.
“We have a lot of voting precincts that have no public buildings. It’s only homes – it’s just residential,” Stinson said.
She wonders where she would even put a precinct voting location.
LubbockLights.com asked Stinson why anyone would be against this way of voting.
“There are folks who think that you cannot accurately audit an election by using vote centers. However, my personal opinion, I highly disagree because you still can. You just got to be willing to put in the work,” Stinson said.
Even though Lubbock shows strong support, we asked if there were problems in other counties – prompting action inside the State Capitol.
“No, I don’t really think there is. … All counties are very strict and very good,” Stinson said.
Some political observers want to dig deeper into election results at a precinct-by-precinct level, Stinson said.
“We still get them what they want, but it takes a little longer,” Stinson said.
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