The Midland County Commissioners Court opposed proposed state legislation during a Feb. 4 court meeting that would eliminate the countywide polling place program, a system the county has used for 15 years.
“Midland County has successfully participated in the program for 15 years,” said Midland County Elections Administrator Rosa Olgin during the meeting. “Voters here in the county have grown accustomed to going to whatever location they chose to go and vote during early voting and election day, rather than having to go to their own neighborhood location. As we all know, many Midland residents don’t necessarily work in Midland County.”
Olgin highlighted the financial impact of discontinuing the program.
“Not only is this going to be an inconvenience for voters, but it would have some financial impacts on the county, as well,” she said. “We would have to purchase over a million dollars worth of equipment alone to be able to have the number of locations that would be required if we did away with the program. We currently have 23 locations, so that would double to 46. We would need twice the number of machines, twice the number of election workers that are already hard to find as it is, so that would be a really big inconvenience.”
Olgin also addressed concerns over voting technology, as some proposed bills seek to remove electronic poll books and require hand-marked paper ballots.
“They’re also wanting to eliminate the use of electronic poll books. And that alone could reduce the amount of fraud that goes on because we can tell in real time what the electronic poll books that we use can tell in real time when a voter checks in at a location,” Olgin said.
According to Olgin, there have been four bills introduced in the Texas Legislature this year attempting to eliminate the polling place program.