Coryell County commissioners oppose legislation that would eliminate countywide polling

By LYNETTE SOWELL 

Cove Leader-Press 

Currently, Coryell County voters can vote at any polling location in the county, regardless of where they live in the county. 

That freedom to vote anywhere in the county is now threatened by bills filed in the current session of the Texas legislature.

Senate Bill 76 (SB76), filed by Senator Bob Hall, would eliminate the state’s countywide polling program. 

Coryell County has participated in the program since 2014, which offers voters convenient options to vote, and it also costs the county less to conduct elections.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the Coryell County commissioners, the commissioners unanimously passed a resolution that opposes that legislation. 

County Voter Registrar Justin Carothers was at the meeting and spoke out about what it would do to the county and its voters, should that program be done away with at the state level. 

“There are several bills on both the House and Senate sides, that would eliminate countywide polling. They claim it is a bad thing for citizens,” said Carothers. “I’m not sure where they’re from, but it has more traction this year than it ever has, and they always try to do this.

“A lot of counties are getting together with resolutions similar to this, saying we oppose this, for the main reason being it would make it really hard on citizens if we have to go back to precinct voting, which means on election day, you have to vote in your precinct. You can’t vote anywhere else. I think it’d be very detrimental to our county to go back to that. No one would know where to vote. Most people don’t vote in their precinct. They vote somewhere else, somewhere close to work. 

“So that’s what this resolution does. It basically goes over the size of our county, how that would affect us. It would cost us more money. 

Carothers said that the biggest thing is that the county would have to open up 16 precinct locations every time. 

“That’s just more money, more people, more time, more confusion,” Carothers added. “We hope that you can get this to our senator and our representative, and get the word out that we are strongly opposed to (these bills).”

Coryell County Judge Roger Miller also talked about the issues this would raise. 

“To highlight, when you are talking about precincts...it’s not the four commissioner precincts. It is the 16 voting precincts that we operate on election day. In effect, we would have to double the amount of personnel to operate those sites as well as identify those sites,” Miller stated. 

Carothers followed up with the confusion and “chaos” it would cause for voters. 

“I mean, right now, when it’s time to vote, you just go vote. You don’t have to know where, and if they change this, it’d just be chaos.”

In a followup email to the Leader-Press, Carothers said that eliminating county wide voting would not affect early voting. While he hasn't put any numbers together at this point, he estimated the county would need $30,000 - $40,000 in extra equipment for year one, and then would have extra costs per election of $5,000 - $10,000 such as for labor, etc. 

Sen. Hall filed a similar bill in the 2023 legislative session. 

Participation in the state’s Countywide Polling Program is voluntary, and 99 of the 254 counties in Texas participated in this program in 2024. This constitutes more than 80 percent of voters in the state of Texas. 

Coryell County is one of 96 Texas counties that have applied for and met the state’s requirements for “successful” countywide precinct polling place designation.