As if worries about the coronavirus were not enough, some Travis County voters inadvertently failed to ask for the correct ballot when applying to vote by mail. As a result, some voters will get a ballot only for the Texas Senate District 14 race, but not for the various runoffs, mostly in the Democratic primary.
People started complaining in various places, including on neighborhood listservs, thinking that there had been an error at the Travis County Clerk’s Office. But that is not the case, explained Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir. Voters who failed to check “Democratic Primary” received a ballot with the Senate race, but not the runoffs on it.
The solution, DeBeauvoir said, is for those voters to take that ballot to one of the early voting locations, hand it in, along with appropriate identification, and vote at that polling place. Voters are not likely to face a crowd at any of the locations because voting has been extremely light so far. Or the voters can do the same thing on election day, July 14.
There are only 20 early voting locations this time, compared to 34 locations in the run-up to the March primary. Because of the difficulty of social distancing inside such small spaces, Travis County can no longer use some of its most popular sites, such as Randalls.
On Monday, the first day of early voting, just 11,567 voters cast ballots in the Senate race, and on Tuesday only 6,688 voters cast ballots in that race, for a total of 18,255. That includes mail ballots received. The front-runners in that race are Democrats state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez and former County Judge Sarah Eckhardt. Republicans Waller Thomas Burns and Don Zimmerman are also in the race, along with Libertarian Pat Dixon and independent Jeff Ridgeway.