Chase Rogers
The Hays County Commissioners Court heard discussion on potential expansion of elections centers Tuesday, Aug. 18, for the upcoming Nov. 3 election, primally concerning adding a second location to Texas State University’s campus.
Discourse centered on adding an additional location in the campus’s recreation center. During the court’s last session Aug. 11, commissioners approved utilizing the Performance Arts Center in place of the previously used LBJ Student Center, citing university concerns with maintaining covid mitigation guidelines within that space.
The Hays County Citizen Election Advisory Commission, established in 2019 to recommend polling locations to the court, did not make quorum the day before to vote on a recommendation in time for the commissioners’ Aug. 18 session. Meeting the day after the court decided to table to vote, the board voted 8-10 in favor of an additional polling center Texas State’s campus.
The commissioners are slated to vote on the issue during their Aug. 25 session.
Texas State’s LBJ Student Center has been subject to long lines and wait times in the past, first prominently covered in the 2018 midterms when students using the location faced upwards of four-hour wait times, lasting past the closing time of the location.
The county faced threat of litigation during the 2018 midterms from the Texas Civil Right Project, citing the limited voting schedule - then only three early voting days and excluding election day – as unconstitutional. In response, the court held an emergency meeting to expand the schedule and add election day.
With the county’s implementation of elections centers in 2019, the return of the Texas State location was uncertain after officials released a list of locations with the university listed with “To Be Determined”. This spurred multiple voting advocacy organizations and activists to voice their concerns before the Hays County Commissioners Court, the court then subsequently voting to retain the location.
Long lines where seen again at Texas State’s sole location on Super Tuesday when, of the 49 polling locations in Hays County, the LBJ Student Center was the last one to bring their voting machines to Hays County Government Center to be tallied – the last ballot being cast nearly five hours after the location had closed.
Two days later, TCRP President Mimi Marziani addressed a letter to Texas Secretary of State Ruth Hughs to express “alarm over the widespread voter suppression our organization documented across the State of Texas during the March 3, 2020 Primary Elections,” citing Texas State as one of the examples.
Compared to 2018, the county has since implemented elections centers, allowing residents to vote at any polling locations within the county. Additionally, there will be an three week of early voting starting Oct. 13, per an order from Gov. Greg Abbott.
Pct. 4 Commissioner Walt Smith stated he would vote against the proposition, citing the closure of a polling location in Dripping Springs due to covid that will subject some residents in his precinct to a 20-30-minute drive to early vote at the nearest location.
“I am not going to support it because I have voting locations in my precinct where people have to travel longer distances and wait in longer lines to vote,” Smith said. “At the bare minimum, there is a bar that has to be meet to participate in the process: it’s called showing up…to ask someone to walk another five minutes or to stand in line another 20 minutes compared to someone who literally had to drive 30 minutes roundtrip to do the same thing – at what point is that bar set low enough?”
Smith added that in order to consider voting in favor, the court would need to agree to add additional locations in other locations within the county.
“I am not going to support another location at Texas State without locations in every aera of this county where there has been more voting than that location. It is the fifth or sixth highest use location in the county…and somehow, they need a second location,” Smith said.
Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra and Pct. 1 Commissioner Debbie Ingalsbe indicated they will vote for the measure while Smith and Pct. 2 Commissioner Mark Jones hinged the vote on also expanding locations in other precincts.
