Public hearing on countywide voting
The Burnet County Elections Office will hold a public hearing at 9 a.m. July 14 in the Commissioners Courtroom at the Burnet County Courthouse regarding its application to the Countywide Polling Place Program. If approved by the state, Burnet County residents would be able to vote at any polling location in the county, regardless of their precinct.
“I don’t see any reason to be opposed to it,” said Burnet County Elections Administrator Doug Ferguson. “It’s not closing any polling places, just opening all 20 to everybody. If you are in Killeen for the day working, you can stop in Oakalla to vote. That’s the biggest benefit of doing it.”
To prepare locations for countywide voting, Ferguson’s department will test polling computers to ensure connectivity.
“You have to have a check-in computer at each location that is communicating back to your main server and communicating back to the rest of the (polling place computers),” Ferguson said. “That’s one of the biggest things for a rural county to get over. We’ve been very successful with the testing that we’ve done so far.”
Once a vote is submitted, every voting center in the county will be aware that a particular person has voted, preventing fraud.
“All the locations get the note,” Ferguson said. “If (a voter) tried to check in somewhere else, then it would say you have already voted.”
Residents may submit their opinions on the countywide voting program by emailing the Burnet County Elections Office at elections@burnetcountytexas.org.
The Commissioners Courtroom is located on the second floor of the courthouse, 220 S. Pierce St. in Burnet.