Vote Where You Live

Travis County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to let County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir pursue her proposal for election day voting centers. The concept, which has been tried in some other counties, would basically allow voters to vote at any polling place on election day (similar to what's allowed during early voting), instead of having to go to their neighborhood precincts. Before implementing the plan, DeBeauvoir must make a proposal to the Texas secretary of state no later than Aug. 3. If it's approved, DeBeauvoir would try the concept on a limited basis in the Nov. 8 constitutional amendment election. A few citizens opposed the plan, including Travis County Republican Party Chair Rosemary Edwards, who worried about the breakdown of the community feel of the precinct polling places and feared "impersonal megavoting places" – apparently ignoring DeBeau­voir's earlier testimony that "we are going to keep virtually all of our polling places in Travis County, the existing neighborhood polling places, but we're going to turn them into vote centers so that all we have to do is tell our voters go vote in your neighborhood."