The Polls stayed open until 8pm today, and here is why it’s a big deal.
This evening the 334th District Court issued an order that was immediately relayed to all polling places via epollbook. The order was that the polls remain open until 8pm, but that at 7pm Presiding Judges were to make a note of who was in line, and anyone arriving after would vote provisionally selecting “Reason #5”, an option on the provisional ballot affidavit that states something to the effect of “5) because the vote was cast after 7pm due to a court order”.
Generally, provisional ballots are discarded for various reasons (like a person not actually being a resident of the county in which they cast the ballot), but the orders given to Judges and Poll Workers was specifically to note if the ballot was provisional for any reason other than Reason 5, presumably to make it easier to sort.
Regardless of whether or not the 334th district Court has the legal authority to issue this order is of no consequence to a presiding judge. Their responsibility is to sit there, all night if needs be, and sign provisional ballots when issued an order. It is not their decision whether the vote counts, if someone arrived at 7:59:59, their responsibility it to accept voters and let the proper authorities argue whether or not those votes counted.
For context, it’s so unusual to have these notifications come up in the first place. There were only 2 county-wide messages between 6am and 8pm that appeared on the ePollbooks. Also since Harris County started allowing voters to vote at any location, provisional ballots are rare. I am 100% certain that at many polling locations, Clerks and Judges had to crack open their manuals to figure out how to even fill one out, and whether or not it should be scanned in the ballot box (it shouldn’t btw).
If an election judge did not accept your provisional ballot because you arrived between 7 and 8pm, that is election tampering, and I encourage you to report it to Harris County.
Elections Administrator’s Office 1001 Preston Houston, TX 77002 (713)755-6965 voters@harrisvotes.com ADA@vote.hctx.net
submitted by /u/dilxoxoxlib
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