Beginning Oct. 1, Travis County voters will be able to hand-deliver their mail ballots at three drive-through locations. The County Clerk’s Office is opening two Down­town sites – the 700 Lavaca St. parking garage and 1010 Lavaca St. parking lot – and the clerk’s office at 5501 Airport Blvd. for voters to drive up and drop off their own completed ballots through Election Day, Nov. 3.

“We’ll probably have 10 or 11 lines where people can come in, show ID, sign a signature roster, and then hand over their by-mail ballot to be put directly in the ballot box,” explained Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeau­voir at a recent Commissioners Court briefing. Ballots are expected to be sent out beginning the last week of September, after which – per Gov. Greg Abbott‘s July 27 proclamation – eligible mail-in voters may deliver their ballots in person prior to Election Day. (The governor’s move only allows ballot collection at the clerk’s existing service locations, such as these three county buildings.) Voters’ requests for mail-in ballots must be received by the clerk’s office by Oct. 23.

The initiative is part of DeBeauvoir’s efforts to protect voter and poll worker safety amid the pandemic. She told the Commis­sioners Court that her office had received around 46,000 ballot requests as of Sept. 2; for comparison, the July 14 special election drew 36,000 ballot applications, which surpassed the county’s previous record for any election of 31,000 requests. “I am anticipating, based on what we learned from July, that it’s very likely we’ll have 100,000 by-mail ballots before this is over,” said DeBeauvoir.

In addition to drive-through ballot drop-offs, the clerk’s office has proposed additional staffing to meet the increase in voting by mail, plus extended hours at voting “megacenters” for the last three days of early voting, Oct. 28-30. (In-person early voting begins Oct. 13, which is a week earlier than normal, again per Abbott’s proclamation.) To execute these strategies, the clerk’s office has requested an additional $660,000 be added to its funding in the county’s fiscal year 2021 budget, which the commissioners are set to approve Sept. 29. According to the county’s Planning and Bud­get Office, a presidential election typically costs the county $3.8 million; this year’s budget will total some $6.9 million.

This article appears in September 18 • 2020.

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