The Independent View: Vote Centers Coming to Texas

In Texas, a slow-building revolution is moving one county at a time to switch the largest state in the lower 48 to a vote center system instead of the traditional precinct-based polling places.

Since beginning a pilot program of vote centers nearly a decade ago just over 10 percent of the state’s 200+ counties used vote centers in the most recent statewide election and more are petitioning to make the move.

While not willing to call the pilot an outright success because of the still small sample of counties using the system, the secretary of state’s report to the 84th Legislature on the program said anecdotally, vote centers do make it easier for voters and elections officials alike.

“However, anecdotal evidence from the participating counties, including feedback from voters and election officials, along with the turnout percentages, suggest countywide election polling places offer a way to ensure that voters who plan to vote in the election have an increased opportunity to do so much as with early voting,” the report said.

Potter County is currently completing the application process to become one of the pilot counties. While a 2013 Vote Center Committee didn’t back the idea, at the urging of new Election Administrator Melynn Huntley, the county is now ready to move forward.

“As I learned how precinct-based voting worked, I saw nothing by advantages for our county in becoming a Vote Center County [VCC],” Huntley said. “Call it naivety or perpetual optimism, but vote centers made sense to me. So earlier this year, I asked the vote center committee to look at the idea again.” Huntley called on officials from other counties using vote centers to help with a presentation to county officials and she said that really helped change the minds of many of the decision-makers.

Alicia Phillips Pierce, communications director for the secretary of state’s office said this support from participating counties to each other and to those applying, has been key for successful rollouts. “Working together, the counties have been able to learn from each other to make the use of countywide polling places go smoothly,” Pierce said.

Of course, as with any change in a lifelong process there have been bumps. Galveston County and Collin County both suffered a host of problems the first time they rolled out vote centers. But both counties remain in the pilot program and have been able to fix their initial problems.

Naysayers have cited those examples as well as concerns about the shift in politics or voter disenfranchisement as reasons for not making the shift. Huntley said she was able to allay those fears in Potter. “By looking at the track record of counties that have been using vote centers in Texas, fears were allayed and the naysayers became supporters,” Huntley said. “In counties that have vote centers, voter turnout has remained consistent or improved slightly. And there have been no remarkable political shifts that can be tied to vote center polling.”

This year, the Legislature failed to move on bills to expand the pilot program to more counties, but elections officials remain hopeful.

“I can’t speak for all the voters of Texas but from the input I receive from voters in our county, they would very much like to see continued use of this type of voting,” Hudson said.