In what may be the most challenging, not to mention contested, election in Galveston County in more than a century, voters head to the polls this week.
Early voting for the Nov. 4 general election begins Monday, even as many of the county’s residents are spread out across the state and areas such as Bolivar Peninsula, Galveston and San Leon struggle just to find places for people to vote.
The county will open 14 early voting locations Monday, allowing registered voters who live anywhere in the county to cast their ballots. The county elections office will also open two temporary voting locations near the tent city shelter at Alamo School in Galveston, and at San Leon Elementary School next weekend to accommodate displaced voters.
Still, following Hurricane Ike, there are plenty of challenges for election officials, candidates and voters alike.
After a slow start in finding enough poll workers, Galveston County Election Coordinator Douglas Godinich said he has enough staff now to conduct the election. He said election-training classes last week averaged about 30 people in each class.
Registration Problems
Voter registration has particularly been a struggle, though, said County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Cheryl Johnson, who is running for re-election against Matt Crowder. In addition to the biannual struggles of reconciling new addresses because of the county’s growth, the biggest problem thus far in making sure the voters rolls are accurate when the polls open has been the mail.
Johnson’s staff was able to recover what mail had been delivered — and flooded — at the main office in Galveston, but has been unable to determine what items may have been lost in transit because of the storm. That leaves an undetermined number of potential voter registration cards that may have never made it to be processed.
And because of delays in mail service, voter registration cards filed well before the Oct. 6 deadline are still arriving each day.
“Just when we thought we were caught up, another mail tray shows up,” said Johnson, who said her staff has been working “around the clock” to process voter registrations.
Then there is the challenge of having voter registration cards delivered to people whose homes may have been destroyed or made uninhabitable because of the storm.
Johnson said she has been struggling to get a list from the Postal Service of addresses they are unable to deliver to because of damage.
“We ran our (voter) list (on Wednesday),” Johnson said. “We hope we can get the most accurate and updated list to the polling locations by Monday.”
That process may be ongoing, she warned.
Provisional Ballots
Even if a voter has not received a voter registration card, though, doesn’t mean you can’t cast a ballot. Johnson said in many cases having a form of ID, such as a driver’s license or other proof of residency, will allow the election workers to check the voter’s name against the registration rolls.
Even if voters are certain they have registered and their name doesn’t show up on that list, they will still be able to cast a ballot. Election workers should be ready for what could be a record number of provisional ballots, Johnson said.
A provisional ballot allows a person with an unresolved voter registration issue to cast a ballot that is actually sealed and held back until the registration conflict can be resolved. Once the discrepancy is resolved, the ballot is counted with all other votes cast.
Godinich said special emphasis on provisional ballots and working through voter registration problems was given during training sessions with election workers.
“We do not turn away any voters in Galveston County,” Godinich said.
Phone Help
Johnson and Godinich said also their staffs would be manning phones while the polls are open to help resolve many of the discrepancies that will likely come up.
Godinich too was confident that there would be plenty of poll workers and supplies at polling locations. The possible logistic nightmare of the High Island polling location should be OK, he said.
He said the location should have enough supplies for two weeks of polling and that the poll workers would be traveling in each day from Winnie to man the polls.
Early Voting Locations
Unlike Election Day polling, early voting locations afford voters the ability to cast their ballot at any of the county’s 14 polling locations. This may be key for residents displaced by Hurricane Ike, said Godinich, who is hoping that at least 50 percent of the county’s voters will decide to cast their ballots during the early voting period.
A Crystal Beach resident, for example, can cast a ballot at the early voting location in Friendswood. Likewise, a Galveston resident who is registered to vote and who may be temporarily living in Texas City does not have to return to the island to cast a vote during the early voting period.
He or she can cast a ballot at any early voting location.
Once it is determined what precinct that voter lives in, he or she will be given a ballot for their particular precinct. On Election Day, however, voters will have to vote in the designated precinct polling location.
All early polling locations, including the location in High Island, will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. the first week of early voting.
In addition, the voting locations at Alamo School and San Leon Elementary will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Oct. 26.
Turnout A Mystery
Despite the challenges presented by Hurricane Ike, Godinich was predicting a 70 percent voter turnout for the election. That would mean 126,000 of the county’s 180,000 voters would cast ballots.
By comparison, the county had a 57 percent turnout in 2004 and 53 percent in the hotly contested 2000 elections.
The county’s two political party chairmen were less ambitious when it came to predicting turnout.
John LeCour, the chairman of the Galveston County Republican Party, said he thought voter turnout is the real unknown.
“Are people going to be distracted by (Ike)? I don’t know,” LeCour said. “We just are not sure of the impact.”
LeCour said he was impressed by the efforts of county election officials.
“They’ve done a pretty good job under the circumstances,” he said. “Where the rubber meets the road, however, is when the votes are counted.”
Lloyd Criss, chairman of the Galveston County Democratic Party, said he also had been impressed by the efforts of elections officials and the county commissioners in addressing the needs of voters this election.
In particular, he was glad to see the temporary voting locations at Alamo School and San Leon were set up. He did, however, chastise County Clerk Mary Ann Daigle for what he termed as her resistance to opening the two temporary locations.
“I’m glad it was handled and these people are given a chance to participate,” said Criss.
Like LeCour, Criss is unsure what voter turnout will be, but expected it to be high in the county despite the challenges offered by the hurricane.
In addition to the top of the ticket races for president and U.S. Senate, county voters will also decide the fate of three county bond proposals totaling $135 million, a school bond proposal in Santa Fe, the members of the High Island school board as well as the Galveston 4B sales tax proposal.
