Texas countywide voting bill would allow fewer polling sites

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This coverage is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting access. Sign up for Votebeat Texas’ free newsletters here.

What happened? Texas state senators Thursday held a public hearing on legislation crafted to update a 2023 law requiring certain counties to drastically increase the number of polling locations if they use vote centers for countywide voting. Last year, Votebeat reported that election officials in several counties said they were struggling to comply with the law as written.

What is the legislation called? Senate Bill 985. It’s awaiting a vote in the Senate Committee for State Affairs.

Who supports the current legislation? State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican, is championing the bill, and it’s also supported by the Texas Association of Election Officials and the Texas Association of County and District Clerks.

“Most election administrators and county clerks will tell you they're struggling to find workers on Election Day,” Bettencourt said during the hearing Thursday. He cited an example reported by Votebeat last year of election officials in Brazos County who said they were struggling to comply with the law.

How would it work? The bill would modify a 2023 law that made it harder for counties using the countywide voting program — where voters can cast a ballot anywhere in their county on Election Day — from combining small voting precincts with few voters into larger ones.

The bill would effectively remove a late amendment to the law that ended up raising the minimum number of polling places that counties had to offer.

Why does it matter? Before the change, counties using the countywide program had flexibility to combine polling sites to save money or make voting more convenient.

Counties have struggled to comply with the new requirements. For example, in Harris County, the state’s largest, the county clerk told party leaders that for the 2024 primary, she had to offer more than 100 more polling locations than in 2020 and 2022. Because of that, Republicans and Democrats had to run their primaries jointly and share voting equipment, because there wouldn’t have been enough for all the locations.

In other counties, election officials said they were not able to fully comply with the law. Brazos County Elections Administrator Trudy Hancock said the county did not have available funds to staff locations and purchase additional equipment. In addition, in some areas of the county there aren’t buildings available to set up the required number of polling locations. In such cases, state officials told county election officials to carefully document their efforts to comply.

What are the key arguments against the bill? No arguments against the proposed bill were presented during the hearing.

What happens next? The bill is now awaiting approval from the committee before it can be voted on by the state Senate.

Read more of Votebeat’s coverage here:

• Some Texas counties struggle to meet new law’s demand for more polling places
• Texas requires more polling places for countywide voting, even in areas where buildings are scarce

Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. She is based in Corpus Christi. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org

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