Burnet County might keep additional early voting sites
Having four polling sites open for early voting in primary elections should become the new norm, Burnet County commissioners informally agreed at a regular meeting Tuesday, Nov. 23. Burnet County Elections Administrator Doug Ferguson recommended keeping polling locations in Bertram and Granite Shoals for a total of four during the two weeks of early voting for the March 1, 2022, Republican and Democratic primaries.
“Having four locations for early voting last fall was very helpful,” Ferguson said. “Especially, since traditionally in the primary, we have the same amount (of voters) in early voting as on Election Day. In fact, we’ve grown a little in early voting.”
Providing more access to early voting, which is Feb. 14-25, 2022, keeps Election Day lines from growing too long, especially in the Burnet County Courthouse South Annex in Marble Falls, he continued.
“My recommendation is to prepare for the worst and have those two additional locations open,” Ferguson said. “Let’s let that be the new standard.”
The two additional locations are in the Bertram Library, 170 S. Gabriel St., and the Granite Shoals Community Center, 1208 N. Phillips Ranch Road. The other two locations are in the Burnet County AgriLife Extension building, 607 N. Vandeveer in Burnet, and the South Annex, 810 Steve Hawkins Parkway in Marble Falls.
No vote was taken on the issue, but all seemed in general agreement with Ferguson’s recommendation.
“That’s the responsible thing to do,” County Judge James Oakley said.
Polling locations will be finalized at a later Commissioners Court meeting.
Commissioners did vote to approve all contracts pertaining to the primary elections this coming March.