GEORGETOWN, Texas (KXAN) — The Williamson County Elections Office is expecting record voter turnout this November. To ensure every voter gets their ballot in, the county will have more polling places than ever before.
Chris Davis, an elections office administrator, said early voting, which starts Oct. 25, will have 22 polling locations. On Election Day, the county will have 65 poll centers.
“That’s the most that we’ve ever had any election,” said Davis.
Davis said the population growth found in the 2020 Census added more than 60 voting precincts to the county. With more polling centers to accommodate voters, the county anticipates having 700 to 800 poll workers staffing its locations from the start of early voting to Election Day.
He said voters have been participating more in elections the last few years. Registration in Williamson County being particularly high.
“We have over 411,000 registered voters in Williamson County,” said Davis.
Considering past voter turnout and the anticipated influx to come with the Texas governor race on the ballot this fall, Davis said the elections office is taking every step it can to prepare poll workers for what will likely be a whirlwind election period.
Those steps include educating voters on new changes that could cause their ballot to be thrown out. Davis said those voting by mail need to be sure to include their identification number and last four digits of their social security number on their application and ballot envelope where appropriate. Not filling out that section leads to automatic rejection, said Davis, with a brief window to submit a corrected ballot.
“If they don’t [fill it out], our first action on this is a rejection, which is why we saw in our county and other counties initially high rejection rates,” said Davis.
The deadline to register to vote to participate in the November election is Oct. 11. Early voting starts not long after on Oct. 25.
Follow this link to view sample ballots for Williamson County races.
