Nov 2, 2009 3:58 pm US/Central
Collin County Part Of Election Day Experiment
McKINNEY (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Tomorrow is Election Day across Texas, but Collin County voters get to take part in an experimental effort to vote at any polling place in the county--not just the usual neighborhood precinct.
Several counties across the state are taking part in the experiment. In North Texas, Collin and Erath Counties will participate.
County officials claim it's just like early voting.
"Early voting is just continued now to Election Day," said Sharon Rowe, the Collin Co. Elections Administrator. "You can choose a location based on convenience."
On Tuesday, the voting machines will be at only 57 polling places in Collin County, not the usual 129 neighborhood precincts. The good news: voters can cast their ballots anywhere in the county. The bad news: it may not be the same polling places they're used to.
The new system is also a little more expensive for the county, requiring new laptops and software. But, Rowe said, "When it's all said and done, we'll evaluate the true cost of the election. But the focus is really on the convenience to the voter."
And despite the new electronics, there are paper ballots as a backup system just in case recounts are ever ordered.
The county is also trying to make it easy for voters to find the closest polling place. Voters can visit
the county's website. They can also send a text message of their ZIP code to 469.713.4636; the reply will list as many as three nearby polling places.
Rowe says she's hopeful that this is how elections will be conducted in the future. "I hope to see it's the wave of the future," she said. "But for voters of Collin County, it is a one-time thing at this moment."
The experiment, like the polls, opens at seven Tuesday morning.
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