Frequently Asked Questions
What is Voting Centers Now?
Voting Centers Now! is a non-partisan, grassroots, volunteer effort. We don't collect dues, raise money or accept financial contributions. All Denton County voters are welcome to participate by following these easy steps.
We are not affiliated with any political party: there's not even any red or blue on this website.
Our only goal is to get Voting Centers for Denton County, which would allow us to vote at any polling place in the county throughout every election -- during Early Voting, as we do now and on Election Day, as voters do in 96 other Texas counties.
More questions about us?
Email votingcentersnow@gmail.com
Is Election Day voting in Denton County different from Early Voting?
Yes, during Early Voting, a registered voter can cast their ballot in any polling place in Denton County. However, on Election Day, you may vote ONLY in your home precinct. The locations of your precinct polling place may change from one election to the next or between Early Voting and Election Day and you'll receive no notice of the change.
If you show up in the wrong precinct, your vote will not be counted, so you either lose the right to vote or have to rush to find the correct polling place, which may be many miles away. As a result, thousands of legally registered voters in Denton County are unable to participate in local elections every year and more are disenfranchised because they can't reach their home precinct during voting hours.
I went to the wrong precinct recently on Election Day and I got to cast a ballot. Didn't that vote get counted?
Voters who show up to vote on Election Day at a precinct other than the one that includes their current home address may ask for a Provisional Ballot.
The election judge at the precinct will ask the voter to fill out additional paperwork, then give them a special ballot. This ballot goes into a special envelope and is reviewed at the Denton Elections Office after the polls close.
In the overwhelming number of cases where someone votes at the wrong precinct, these ballots are not counted because state law requires that Election Day ballots be cast at a voter's current home precinct, unless the county uses voting centers on Election Day.
Why the difference between early voting rules and Election Day rules?
The Denton County Commission (the county judge plus four commissioners, all elected) has not taken the action required by the State of Texas to make it possible to use the same voting system on Election Day that we use during early voting. The commission must certify that requirements meet by the Texas Secretary of State have been met, then file an application with that office.
Do other Texas counties have countywide voting on Election Day?
Yes, 96 Texas counties have countywide voting during early voting and on Election Day. In North Texas, Denton is the only county that does not have it. Dallas, Tarrant and Collin counties all have countywide voting on Election Day and have for years.
Who would benefit from this change to countywide voting on Election Day and through every election?
Every legally registered voter in the county, regardless of political affiliation, would benefit from this change. There are more than 630,000 legally registered voters in Denton County.
Has this been covered in the news media?
Yes, you can see stories about this issue under "See news coverage."
Would a change to voting centers affect other local elections, such as municipal or school board elections?
If Denton County applies for the vote center program and we are accepted, vote centers would be enabled for all local elections.
Why would anyone oppose this?
The Republican Party of Denton County holds precinct meetings (called "precinct conventions") to elect representatives to the county convention and conduct other local party business in each precinct at night after the polls close on Election Day during primary elections.
These meetings, open only to Republicans, are held once every two years. They are sparsely attended.
County Commissioner Dianne Edmondson, a former Republican county chair, says having countywide voting on Election Day would require the party to change the dates for these meetings that are held once every two years. She says this would be very difficult to do. But we know that other counties have done it.
Other people say that people who wait until Election Day to vote are lazy, that they should be voting during Early Voting. Another view is that there are plenty of opportunities to vote during Early Voting, so it does not matter if some people don't get to vote on Election Day.
Couldn’t they just change the date and time of these meetings after the polls close?
Yes, the Republican parties in the 96 counties that have voting centers on Election Day have done so.
In Tarrant County just south of us with nearly twice as many precincts as Denton, these meetings are held a few days after the primary election. Party officials say this has made it easier for election workers to attend and improved turnout.
Is this an issue of election security?
No. We have countywide voting during Early Voting using the same machines and programming that would be used on Election Day with voting centers.
When you are issued a ballot during Early Voting now, that fact is shared with all the polling place computers at every polling location. This means you can't vote in one location during countywide voting, then go to another and vote again.
Are there any other reasons people oppose Voting Centers?
At meetings on this subject, people have given these reasons for opposing Voting Centers:
• People who can't figure out their Election Day polling place don't deserve to vote.
• People have plenty of chances to vote anywhere in the county during Early Voting, so it doesn't matter if some people can't vote on Election Day.
• Counties with Voting Centers have more illegal voting than those that don't.
272 instances out of 94 million votes cast. And many of those instances involved mail-in, rather than in-person voting the actual number of relevant offenses is even lower.
However, it is true that since more than 83% of the people eligible to vote in Texas live in counties with Voting Centers, more of the rare instances of illegal voting that do occur happen in those counties.
• We don't know exactly how many people show up at the wrong polling place on Election Day because the county doesn't track it, so we should not allow countywide voting on Election Day.
Just because there are no "official numbers" does not mean the problem doesn't exist. Most election workers who have worked on Election Day in Denton County will tell you about redirecting voters. The numbers vary from one polling place to another and from one election to the next.
• Rejected provisional ballots get counted if there is a tie in election results.
This is not true. Rejected ballots are never counted in any circumstance, according to the Denton Elections office.
• The GOP would not be able to control who serves as presiding election judges in polling places with Voting Centers.
Political parties control the appointments of presiding election judges at polling places in Texas. During early voting, this position is called lead deputy voting clerk, but they perform the same functions as presiding judges do on Election Day.
Judges/lead clerks enforce an extensive set of written rules about voting in each polling place. They are supposed to enforce all the rules in the same way, regardless of their own political affiliation, the polling location or the political party of individual voters. The rules for who appoints judges/lead clerks, are set by state law.
With the current system, in primary elections, each party has its own voting locations and appoints its own presiding judges/lead clerks for each voting location.
With Voting Centers, each primary polling location would have two presiding judges/lead clerks, one from each party.
For the general election, in the current system, each location has a presiding judge/lead clerk affiliated with the party that won the last gubernatorial election in that county. In Denton County, that's the GOP. Each location has an alternate judge from the party whose candidate came in second in the last gubernatorial election in that county.
In a general election with Voting Centers, each party would have presiding judges/lead clerks at the number of polling centers proportional to number of precincts won by each party's candidate in the last gubernatorial race.
• The rules for voting on Election Day are more strict than during Early Voting and Voting Centers would change that.
Not true. For example, the laws about who is eligible to vote, what forms of ID they must use to prove they are who they say they are, and who can assist disabled voters and how they can assist them are the same for Early Voting and Election Day.
Rules about what you can wear in a polling place, how close to a polling place you can hand out candidate literature are the same for Early Voting and Election Day. Judges and clerks receive THE SAME training for Early Voting and Election Day.
Will a change to voting centers for both primary and general Elections cost more than the current system or save money?
Cost savings is not the point of the countywide voting program. The big advantage is convenience to all voters and reduction in the number of ballots not counted because voters showed up in the wrong place.
The Denton Elections Administration says that if vote centers were enabled, in the beginning we would open the same number of locations for each election as we would have for a precinct-based election. Over time, we might close locations with low turnout, but there's a limit in state law on how many polling places the county must have to adequately serve voters. No one wants to see long lines at polling places.
If we had Voting Centers, how would the County make sure that we don't wind up with too many voters at some polling places and very few at others?
The Denton Elections Department says they would start Voting Centers with about the same number of polling locations we have now. They would monitor turnout at each location for every election and make adjustments as needed over time.
In addition, the state has guidelines for numbers of polling places and we have the experience of 96
other counties to draw on.
If you have more questions about the way we vote now or about how Voting Centers work, call the Denton County Elections Administration at (940) 349-3200 or email them at elections@dentoncounty.gov.