HOUSTON — Harris County voters have broken records this week and that has election officials reassessing early voting times to better accommodate demand in the future.
“I mean, one thing’s to be like the last Presidential election when we were up 43-percent the first day,” said Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart. “But three times? Wow!”
Some KHOU viewers said the numbers would have been even higher but they weren't able to get to the polls by 4:30 p.m.
“That’s a little early,” said one voter. “If you work until 5 or 6, it’s a problem.”
VOTER GUIDE: Early voting locations, sample ballots and more
We did some research and found that Harris County is the only one in the Greater Houston Area with a 4:30 p.m. closing time. Early voting sites in Fort Bend, Brazoria, Montgomery and Galveston counties are open until at least 5 p.m. this first week of early voting. Some sites in Fort Bend stay open until 7:00 p.m. It’s the same story in other major counties in Texas. Polls are open from 7 a.m.until 7 p.m. in Travis County, 8 .m. until 6:00 p.m. in Bexar County, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Dallas County.
“On Saturday, we go to 7 p.m. and all next week it’s 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” said Stanart. “4:30 has just been the tradition during the first week of early voting in Harris County.”
Stanart says poll worker availability and other factors play a role in determining polling place times. Changing them after an election has begun is not an option. But next time is.
“The model has changed and we’re going to respond to the voters,” said Stanart. “I think we’ll have to expand hours in the future.” It’ll probably be the end of 4:30 unless the environment changes again for some reason.”
We should mention that many believe early voting hours are accommodating enough as they are.
That’s especially true for voters who remember when election day was the only option to vote.
Here’s a link to Harris County voting details: https://www.harrisvotes.com/