Texas Legislature approves bill to ease polling place requirements for countywide voting

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What happened?

Both chambers of the Texas Legislature have passed a bill intended to roll back a 2023 law that required certain counties to drastically increase the number of polling locations — even in areas where buildings were scarce and funding wasn’t available to fully equip them.

The bill is now headed to the governor’s desk and set to become law.

Votebeat has reported that election officials in several counties said they were struggling to comply with the 2023 law as written.

What is the legislation called?

Senate Bill 985 is set to take effect in September.

Who supports the current legislation?

State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican, championed the bill, and it was supported by the Texas Association of Election Officials and the Texas Association of County and District Clerks.

“SB 985 is a commonsense correction to an unintended consequence from last session,

SB 924, which left counties scrambling to double polling locations and workers,”

Bettencourt said in a press release Tuesday. “This bill ensures smarter use of taxpayer dollars and better access for voters without sacrificing voter integrity whatsoever.”

How would it work?

The bill would modify a 2023 law that made it harder for counties using the countywide voting program — where voters can cast a ballot anywhere in their county on Election Day — to combine small voting precincts with few voters into larger ones.

The bill would effectively remove a late amendment to that law that ended up raising the minimum number of polling places that counties had to offer.

Why does it matter?

Before the change, counties using the countywide program had flexibility to combine polling sites to save money or make voting more convenient.

Counties have struggled to comply with the new requirements. For example, in Harris County, the state’s largest, the county clerk told party leaders that for the 2024 primary, she had to offer more than 100 more polling locations than in 2020 and 2022. Because of that, Republicans and Democrats had to run their primaries jointly and share voting equipment, because there wouldn’t have been enough for all the locations.

In other counties, election officials said they were not able to fully comply with the law. Brazos County Elections Administrator Trudy Hancock said the county did not have available funds to staff locations and purchase additional equipment. In his press release Tuesday, Bettencourt specifically pointed to Brazos as a county that would be helped by the legislation.

What are the arguments against the bill?

Some Democrats raised concerns that the bill would lead to fewer polling locations and reduced access to the ballot box. State Rep. John Bucy of Austin said during a hearing in March that the state should focus on providing more funding for elections to prevent further polling site closures.

What happens next?

The bill is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk for his signature. In Texas, however, a bill can become law without the governor’s signature.

Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. She is based in Corpus Christi. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org

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