April 5, 2024
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I've been working on this issue for about two months, spurred on by my experience at an Election Day polling place in the March 5 primary where 450-500 voters were redirected to other locations. In the last month, I've spoken to half a dozen groups on the topic and gotten feedback from lots of folks who've seen my social media posts.
Their comments and questions have been helpful. Most of the people I've heard from support voting centers on Election Day. Several other election workers reported on social media after seeing my posts that they have experienced redirections of 200-300 voters from various county Election Day polling places.
Even the comments from the few who oppose Voting Centers have been helpful. As a result, I've done more research and have updated the slide/video presentation and website accordingly. Check out the updated webpage and slide/video presentation at www.votingcentersnow.org.
You may be wondering why anyone would oppose making it easier for legally registered voters to cast ballots on Election Day, especially when 93 other Texas counties already do this. Here's some of what they said:
• It doesn't happen -- people are not redirected from polling places on Election Day in Denton County.
• Even if some people do get redirected to another polling place on Election Day and can't make it there in time to vote, it does not matter because those folks could have cast their ballots during Early Voting.
• People who go to the wrong polling place on Election Day are either ignorant or lazy and shouldn't be voting anyway.
• Election Day provisional ballots that are rejected because the voter cast them in the wrong polling place get counted when there's a tie in election results.
This is NOT true.
I hope you've already sent your two emails in support of voting centers to County Judge Andy Eads and to the commissioner who represents your area. If not, you can find their contact info and the name of the commissioner who represents your area at www.votingcentersnow.org/TakeAction.
We are looking for groups to speak to in coming months, so if you belong to a club or group that meets in person, reply to this email or send an email to votingcentersnow@gmail.com with the name of the group, when they meet and the name and contact info for the person who schedules speakers. Civic groups, professional associations, neighborhood clubs, churches, political clubs, book clubs, for example, are great venues.
And finally, questions or feedback are welcome!
Thanks for your interest.
Jane Scholz
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