Voting in the 2016 Elections is finally over in Texas. Reports indicate the voter turnout in this election was high, but it unquestionably hasn’t come without a huge number of serious issues.
The nonpartisan Election Protection coalition has fielded over 4,000 calls from Texans who had questions about voting or who ran into problems while voting – and the phones are still ringing in the call center.
Just a small sampling of the issues received included:
- People registering with state agencies and never making it onto the voter rolls
- Voting machines not being up and running when polls open
- County websites posting incorrect poll site info
- Poll sites with incorrect Voter ID info
- Election officials providing incomplete or incorrect info on Voter ID
- Voter intimidation issues
- Election workers directing voters to the wrong poll sites
Common Cause Texas Executive Director Anthony Gutierrez says Texas can do better.
“After the polls close, most people will forget about all the problems we saw during this election but Common Cause Texas will remain on the case.There are a number of simple things we can do legislatively to make Election Day run far more smoothly for both officials and voters. We at Common Cause Texas will be working in the coming weeks and months to analyze data from the calls received by the election protection hotline with an eye towards making policy recommendations that we’ll then be advocating for during the legislative session.Texas can do so much better in the realm of voting and election administration and it begins with the state taking far more seriously their role in cultivating a culture of civic engagement.”
