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February 9, 2010

Preparations for March 2 primary elections in full swing

By Rich Flowers News Editor The Athens Review

Athens — Preparations for the March 2 primary elections are in full swing at the Henderson County Election Center.

With the beginning of early balloting less than two weeks away, Henderson County Election Administrator Denise Hernandez said work is progressing at the  Election Center on Larkin Street in Athens.

From Feb. 16 though Feb. 26, early balloting in both the Democratic and Republican primaries will be conducted at the center from 8.a.m to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Voters can also go to either the Seven Points City Hall or the  Courthouse Annex in Chandler from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Both locations will close between 11.30 a.m. and at 12:30 p.m for lunch. There will be no voting at the courthouse this year.

Hernandez said voters who can’t make it during the weekday session will also get the opportunity to cast ballots on Saturday, Feb. 20 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Sunday Feb. 21 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The weekend voting will be conducted at the Larkin Street location only.

On election day, voters will cast ballots in the precincts where they are registered. Precinct 3 Republicans will vote at the center, while Democrats from that precinct will go to Fisher Elementary School.

Hernandez said voters who have relocated recently need to be sure they have an up-to-date address on file with the voter-registration office.

“If they forgot to change their mailing address, they may come to the wrong polling place when they try to vote,” Hernandez said.

The elections office did a mass mailout of voter registration cards in December, 2009.

Since that time, numerous cards have been returned by the post office because the addressee could not be located. Those are placed in a suspended voter file.

According to Election Code Sec. 16.032, a voter is to be put on suspense when a voter's renewal certificate is returned to the voter registrar undelivered due to erroneous address.

A voter with this designation will be removed from suspense once that person has advised the registrar of his or her new address.

Hernandez said the suspense file has grown from about 2,400 to 6,928 since the December mailing.

“By law I have to send out an address confirmation card for them to update,” Hernandez said. “I’ve got a whole bunch of those back.”

Those people are going to be upset when they go to the polling place and have to cast a provisional ballot, Hernandez said.

According to the Texas Secretary of State website, a provisional ballot “is required when a voter claims to be properly-registered, and eligible to vote at the election precinct, but whose name does not appear on the list of registered voters, and whose registration cannot be determined by the Voter Registrar.”

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