Voter registration soared in Travis County, delaying voter card delivery

AUSTIN — Early voting starts Monday and it turns out that a few thousand voters in Travis County won't have voter registration cards in hand when the polls open.

Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector Bruce Elfant told KVUE News his office received 38,000 voter registration applications on the Oct. 9 deadline and in the days following through the mail. All of those applications have to be processed and put into the system by hand, which will take a while.

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"Forty states enable their citizens to be able to register to vote online. It's cheaper, it's more accurate, it's more secure. And Texas really needs to get with the program and allow its citizens to register online," said Elfant. "We wouldn't still be here processing voter registration applications more than 10 days after the voter registration deadline if we had online registration."

Elfant wants those voters who don't get their cards before the polls open at 7 a.m. Monday to know they can still vote early.

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"Everybody will be able to cast a provisional ballot during the early period and on election day. And once the information is uploaded into our system, assuming it is valid and was submitted in time, their vote will be able to count," he added.

Elfant said if voters without cards registered at an event or drive and have a receipt, they should take it with them to the polling location.

Whether you're filing a provisional ballot or not, all Texans who go to the polls needs to take one of the seven approved forms of I.D.:

• Texas Driver License
• Texas Election ID Certificate
• Texas Personal Identification Card
• Texas Handgun License
• U.S. Citizenship Certificate with Photo
• U.S. Military ID Card with Photo
• U.S. Passport

If you don't have one of those forms of I.D., you can fill out a Reasonable Impediment Declaration at the polls and show a copy or original of one of the following documents:

• Certified Domestic Birth Certificate of Court Admissible Birth Document
• Current Utility Bill
• Bank Statement
• Government Check
• Paycheck
• Government document with your name and as address including your Voter Registration Certificate

While people who registered late may not have their card for early voting, Elfant said the cards should arrive by Election Day on Nov. 6.