Today Fort Bend County Judge KP George announced a new polling location that will be available for all registered voters who live in the county.
“Today I am so proud to announce that Smart Financial Center, in the next election for early voting and Election Day, is going to be a mega-voting center,” George announced at a Thursday press conference. The location in Sugar Land is easy to access from all points in the county and has plenty of parking available.
Fort Bend voters will be casting ballots on new voting machines this year, first used in the primary run-off, that have paper backups.
The first round of mail-in ballots are going out now now and the rest will be mailed out early next week. County Elections Administrator John Oldham says they had to wait for a couple legal rulings, including inclusion of Green Party candidates and yesterday’s ruling by the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a federal judge’s decision to reinstate straight ticket voting, before they could print the ballots to be mailed.
Governor Abbott issued a proclamation today limiting each County to only one drop-off location for all completed ballots if someone chooses to deliver their ballot in person. Voters will be required to go inside and sign in with a photo ID. Only the voter can drop off their own ballot.
When it comes to in-person voting in Fort Bend, all voters can cast a ballot at any voting location.
The County has created a task force to ensure there is no fraud that occurs during the election and will work with police and investigators to ensure there are no attempts at voter suppression.
Fort Bend County voters can confirm their registration status and obtain a sample ballot at the County’s election website.
Early voting begins October 13. Election Day is November 3.
photo: Getty Images