County officials are using apps to help voters find places to vote. This is from September, so there's no feedback yet on whether these actually worked.
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Just in time for the November election, Galveston County has launched the first mobile app of its kind in the state, called "Galveston Votes." It uses GPS to direct people with lightning speed to the closest voting center.
Fort Bend County in November will make its first foray into using "voting centers" that are open to all voters countywide, rather than restricting them to their neighborhood precinct.
Montgomery and Harris counties are studying whether to do the same thing.
These efforts are part of a growing trend to counter Texas' low voter turnout - ranked nationally in 2014 third from the bottom. More and more counties across the state are moving toward using these voting centers. They are looking for any way they can to make voting more accessible and entice voters to the polls.
The centers, which can be located anywhere from grocery stores to shopping malls, may be used by any eligible voter within a county. Voters will no longer be restricted to one precinct site.
The National Conference of State Legislatures says the possible advantages include convenience, financial savings and increase in turnout. Possible drawbacks include a loss of the tradition of neighborhood voting, confusion if the scheme isn't properly explained to voters and the cost of new equipment and technology.Harris County will give these a trial run in March.
Harris County, like Montgomery, is studying the issue. Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart plans to test new infrastructure at a few polling locations during the primary next March that could be used for future voting centers.
But Stanart warns that converting a county as large as Harris, with its 4.3 million people and 769 polling stations, would be logistically challenging and costly. Each polling station has to be electronically linked to update in "real time" the names of those who are voting at various stations.
"We do that now in early voting with 41 stations, but don't have the ability to do 769 yet," he said.
About 13 percent of all Texas counties are now using countywide voting centers and the number keeps rising, said Alicia Pierce, spokeswoman for the Texas Secretary of State, who said many voters enjoy the convenience it affords.
