Register to Vote!

[Skiprr]

Tomorrow, September 27, 2016, is National Voter Registration Day: http://nationalvoterregistrationday.org/. There will be many voter registration events/drives throughout Texas and the nation; check the map on the website to find locations and times.

A random, unscientific, sampling of these indicate that--entirely expectedly--the majority are Democrat Party events. There is also some obvious geographic disparity. For example, Nuevo Laredo shows 12 voter registration drive events; Greater Houston, three; the DFW Metroplex, four; Greater Austin, seven.

However, it's a good day to mark on your calendar as a reminder to be certain your voter registration is current. Generally speaking, the registration deadline in Texas is October 11. And keep in mind that some changes in your life will affect your status even if you were previously registered. Some of these include:

• A move to a different county within Texas: You must re-register! Your previous registration is no longer valid. Take care of this now because we're only 11 days out from the deadline.
• A change of address within the same county: You need to notify the correct voter registrar authority in your county (in most cases, the Tax Assessor-Collector; in some, the County Clerk or Elections Administrator) in writing of the change. If you reside in the same county, you can do this online. But you'll want to do it now because it takes up to 30 days to receive your corrected voter registration card.
• A change of name: You may not need to re-register, but the update process can take longer than a simple change of address depending upon the circumstances. If you did not take care of this when you changed your Texas driver's license, you may need to fill-out a new voter registration form and check the "change" box. If you're still living in the same county, the change can be made online.

• Information and links related to voter registration changes: http://www.votetexas.gov/register-to-vo ... -something.
  
  Information about registering, or to check if your registration is valid for the November general election: http://www.votetexas.gov/register-to-vo ... er-to-vote.
  
  Early voting in Texas begins October 24 and ends November 4. Information about early voting: http://www.votetexas.gov/voting/when/.

Bottom line: Don't sit this one out!

This election, we're not just selecting the first new POTUS and administration in eight years, we're also very likely selecting the majority structure of the Supreme Court for a generation or more.

Our Forum members, I believe, are more likely to vote in elections than the general population. But none of us can stay home on this one.

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Early Voting Locations

A reminder that early voting locations can change. For example, for over a decade I used the same facility at the city hall of a municipality in northwest Harris County. Two years ago, out of habit and without bothering to check, away I went to cast my vote. And you guessed it: sign on the front door saying it was no longer a voting location; the two closest were several miles away either north or south, and I had to reschedule to vote on a different day.

To try to help some of you avoid that, and make it quicker to find your early voting locations, I've compiled a set of links to early voting locations in Texas's 15 most populous counties. Keep in mind that registered and eligible voters may vote at any early voting location in the county of their residence.

• Harris: http://www.harrisvotes.com/EarlyVoting/ ... eNonIE.pdf
• Dallas: http://www.dallascountyvotes.org/early- ... rmation-2/
• Tarrant: http://access.tarrantcounty.com/en/elec ... -Maps.html
• Bexar: http://www.bexar.org/DocumentCenter/View/4572
• Travis: http://traviscountyclerk.org/eclerk/Content.do?code=E.4
• Collin: http://www.collincountytx.gov/elections ... oting.aspx
• El Paso: https://epcountyvotes.com/quick_links/where_do_i_vote
• Hidalgo: https://tx-hidalgocounty.civicplus.com/ ... View/23493
• Denton: http://www.votedenton.com/early-voting-in-person/
• Fort Bend: http://www.fortbendcountytx.gov/index.aspx?page=919
• Montgomery: http://www.mctx.org/election/
• Williamson: http://www.wilco.org/CountyDepartments/ ... fault.aspx
• Cameron: http://www.co.cameron.tx.us/Early%20Vot ... 02016b.pdf
• Nueces: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mi ... UzivrrgCi8
• Brazoria: http://www.brazoriacountyclerk.net/reco ... Places.htm

[RoyGBiv]

Excellent, timely reminder! Thanks!

[Jusme]

You should make this a sticky topic.

With all of the info you provided, it may get lost in the shuffle with some newer members, and/or lurkers, on the forum.
JMHO.

[Flightmare]

I think my parents would disown me if I ever failed to vote.

[Skiprr]

Original post edited to add links to find early voting locations in Texas's 15 most populous counties. There are a few websites that try to consolidate all early voting locations into a searchable database but, frankly, I wouldn't trust them. There is no consistent way that individual counties display the voting locations--some list them on a webpage, some in a PDF file, and some even on an implementation of Google Maps--so there's really no accurate way that a third-party site can aggregate all the correct information.

For accuracy's sake, I suggest you always consult the appropriate voter information for your particular county.

[TexasJohnBoy]

Google "<your county> early voting". It worked for me!

[n5wd]

I think my parents would disown me if I ever failed to vote.

You think you've got it bad? My late wife would haunt me forever if I failed to vote, especially this presidential election year! She had decided that her first non-official act after retiring from the local school district (where she was an elementary school principal) was to volunteer as an election judge, and I was informed that I would certainly be accompanying her to the training!

Maybe it had something to do with her being a naturalized American citizen. She was born in India, to British parents of Chinese ethnicity and became an American citizen through expeditious naturalization while we were enroute from Incirlik AB in Turkey to Clark Air Base in the Philippines. She often said that one of her proudest moments was when she raised her right hand in the federal courthouse in Fort Worth in 1974, and swore her allegiance to the United States. I know that she really appreciated what it meant to become an American citizen, and though she could have held dual US-British citizenship, she relinquished her Brit passport after becoming an American citizen.

Fitting, I think, that her ashes now rest in the DFW National Cemetery, where mine will join her (hopefully not too soon) along with the rest of the patriots and family members interred there.

Anyway - I know if she were here she'd join in in urging folks to VOTE!

[Flightmare]

I think my parents would disown me if I ever failed to vote.

You think you've got it bad? My late wife would haunt me forever if I failed to vote, especially this presidential election year! She had decided that her first non-official act after retiring from the local school district (where she was an elementary school principal) was to volunteer as an election judge, and I was informed that I would certainly be accompanying her to the training!

Maybe it had something to do with her being a naturalized American citizen. She was born in India, to British parents of Chinese ethnicity and became an American citizen through expeditious naturalization while we were enroute from Incirlik AB in Turkey to Clark Air Base in the Philippines. She often said that one of her proudest moments was when she raised her right hand in the federal courthouse in Fort Worth in 1974, and swore her allegiance to the United States. I know that she really appreciated what it meant to become an American citizen, and though she could have held dual US-British citizenship, she relinquished her Brit passport after becoming an American citizen.

Fitting, I think, that her ashes now rest in the DFW National Cemetery, where mine will join her (hopefully not too soon) along with the rest of the patriots and family members interred there.

Anyway - I know if she were here she'd join in in urging folks to VOTE!

My mother has served as an election judge several times. When I turned 18 and was first able to vote, I voted early so I could help her out on election day.

[Skiprr]

Reminder: One Week Left until the Texas Voter Registration Deadline

If you need to register to vote--new registration or because you've moved to a different county--you have through Tuesday, October 11.

Please don't assume that you don't need to vote because there are others out there who will express your opinions at the polls.

I came across this interesting infographic last weekend. It displays the relative voter turnout, by county and based on the national median, for the last presidential election in 2012, when the nation gave Obama a second term.

Because the image is large and requires that level of detail to display the counties properly, I'm uploading it as an attachment rather than embedding it (original post and source information here: https://tmblr.co/ZEeTEt1TD7ArB).

I'm perfectly happy that the turnout in California was so low--it usually is in general elections (as is Alaska and Hawaii) because of the time difference and numbers being in from the east predicting the outcome before the polls close in the western states--but Texas? Really?

Texas, we need to much, much better this year!