Voting got off to a rousing start Monday, Oct. 21, at a handful of locations throughout the county with reports of a few minor human errors.
Considered a contentious presidential election year, the local ballot also included a Marble Falls ISD funding election which, if approved, would increase the school tax rate.
One of the largest turnouts that morning involved the site at the Texas Tech Highland Lakes complex, 806 Steve Hawkins Pkwy in Marble Falls. (Find a list of early voting locations on Page 4).
“It is blasting off. As of now (12:30 p.m.), we have voted 578 people at Texas Tech,” Burnet County Elections Administrator Doug Ferguson told The Highlander. For the Nov. 5 election, early voting started Monday and goes through Friday, Nov. 1.
Lines at all locations moved well without much incident.
“At Bertram we had the SSID for the WiFi incorrect,” Ferguson shared. “It didn’t stop them from adding voters. They just weren’t connected for the first 15 minutes."
A WiFi connection connects the system for local election sites and administrators to communicate with all the locations to collect information.
At the Texas Tech site, elec- tion officials remedied a hand ful of delays with some of the first voters in line.
“They were able to open at 8 o’clock and started adding voters at the beginning,” Ferguson said. “They were trying to scan an old bar code on an old license.
“They had to move them around or just type them in,” he added. “They were just having some growing pains noticing that older licenses weren’t scanning as easily.”
By noon, officials re ported 541 voters at the AgriLife building in Burnet; and Granite Shoals and Bertram sites reported nearly 300 voters each.
“The ratios are normal. The numbers are high,” Ferguson said.
"We're definitely turning a big day.”
Bud Wimberly of Marble Falls was among some at the front of the line.
“We have to get up here early, so our vote gets put in there. It was a long line,” he said. “They were having kind of a hard time with these new machines, but they finally got us in there.”
On the Ballot
Those living within the Marble Falls ISD boundaries will determine the outcome of a proposition that would raise taxes but also close a critical gap in funding. (Find a statement from the Marble Falls ISD school board president on Page 4).
The Proposition A school funding election is known as a Voter Approved Tax Rate Election (VATRE). If passed, the measure would increase the school tax rate 88.78 cents to 91.22 cents per $100 property valuation. The Marble Falls tax rate is split into two numbers. I&S (debt service) is .2153 cents. The maintenance and operations (M&O) is 67.25 cents per $100 property valuation. The increase would be re- flected on the M&O side of the rate. The increase would generate $2.2 million.
Among the voters first in line, Mary Ann Nelson said she found it a duty to show up to the polls.
“We care about our country, the future of our children. We’re old and we need somebody that’s going to take care of them,” Nelson said. “In the large communities, they don’t take time to stop and smell the roses, and I think here we do.
“We are more into what’s going on in our world today,” she added. “We do show up to vote because we care so much about the future.”
Evelyn Smith joined Nelson to be one of the first in line.
“We feel like there are certain candidates that will do what we feel like is good for the country, and we want to be apart of that,” Smith told The Highlander. “The rural communities get out and vote more. We have a little more time to think about it.
“Because we are a close-knit community, we want to stay that way. If we don’t have the right person in there, things are going to change.”
Along with key dates for early voting, Friday, Oct. 25, is the last day to apply for a ballot by mail.
Wimberly added he believes high turnout will reflect the will of local voters.
“It should be a landslide, according to the polls. It’s close, but I don’t see it being close,” he said. “We do get out and vote, a small community. We care about our country. We’re tired of all of this nonsense.”
For official informa tion, including registration and vote-by-mail deadlines, please visit VoteTexas.gov or call 1-800-252-VOTE.
For more information, e-mail elections@burnetcountytexas. org or call the Burnet County Elections Office at 512-715-5288.
Registered voters can check their status on the Texas Secretary of State’s website, https://www.sos. state.tx.us.
