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Summary
To register to vote in the state of Texas, an individual must meet the following qualifications:
  • be a U.S. citizen;
  • be a resident of the county;
  • be 18 years old (you may register at 17 years and 10 months);
  • not a convicted felon (unless a person's sentence is completed, including any probation or parole)
  • not declared mentally incapacitated by a court of law

The application must be received in the Voter Registrar's office or postmarked 30 days before an election in order for you to be eligible to vote in that election. You will receive a voter registration certificate in the mail after the Voter Registrar has processed your voter registration application. Upon receipt of the voter registration certificate, sign it, fold it and keep in it in your wallet and take it to the polls with you when you vote.
All voters who registered to vote in Texas must provide a Texas driver's license number or personal identification number issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety. If you do not have such a number, then you must state that fact and provide the last four digits of your social security number. If you do not have a social security number, you must also state that fact.

There are several ways to vote. The easiest is to visit this Web site, fill out the form, print it out, affix proper postage, and mail it to your Local Voter Registration Official.

You may request a postage-paid application by filling out this form and no later than the next working day, a voter registration application will be mailed to you. You must mail the voter registration application to the voter registrar in your county of residence. You may access a list of all the voter registrars. You may also pick up a voter registration application at many post offices, libraries, Texas Department of Public Safety offices, and Texas Department of Human Services offices throughout the state.

Early Voting
Once registered to vote in Texas, you can vote at your convenience beginning on the 17th day before an election and ending on the 4th day before election day in most elections. This is called early voting, and there are two types of early voting in Texas. Vote early in person (you don't need to vote in your precinct, you can cast your ballot at any early voting site in your county which is convenient to YOU) or vote early by mail (this is done by requesting an application for a ballot to be mailed to you or downloading an application form). Voting early in person is convenient and, unlike early voting by mail, you don't need an excuse.

Absentee Voting
To be eligible to vote early by mail in Texas, you must:
  • be 65 years or older;
  • be disabled;
  • be out of the county on election day and during the period for early voting by personal appearance; or
  • be confined in jail, but otherwise eligible.
You may open this form (PDF, 41kb), print the application, fill in the information, sign and date it. You will then put it in an envelope, add postage, and mail to the Early Voting Clerk in your county.
OR
You may also request an application for Ballot by Mail online , and not later than the next working day, an application for ballot by mail will be mailed to you. You must mail the application to early voting clerk of the authority conducting the election.
The early voting clerk is the county clerk or elections administrator for your county. A list of County Clerks is available here.
For more information, please read the Early Voting in Texas pamphlet

Military/Overseas Voters
First and foremost, a thank you to the military voters for your service to our country. To all U.S. citizens overseas, thank you for your interest in your country's elections while far away. (Federal voting law defines "overseas" as anywhere outside the United States. This includes Canada and Mexico.) Military and overseas voters are welcome to use the regular registration and early voting by mail process available to all voters away from their home county on Election Day. However, there are also special provisions for you.
Important links for Military/Overseas Voters

Election Day
The Elections Division of the Secretary of State's Office is open from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. weekdays, and during the hours that the polls are open on all uniform election dates (2nd Saturday in May and 1st Tuesday after the 1st Monday in November). Statewide and federal elections (which are held in the months of March, April, and November). Answers to questions on election law and procedures may be obtained by telephoning the Elections Division toll-free at 1.800.252.VOTE (8683) or direct at 512.463.5650.

For more information, please read the Voter Registration in Texas pamphlet.

Deadlines

Voting Equipment
Texas allows the individual counties to determine which voting system it will use, creating a decentralized process for which voter machines are chosen for use.
The three companies used within the counties are: Hart, ES&S and Diebold. There are three components to each companies' marking machines: the electronic ballot marker or direct-recording electronic machines, the optical scan and the software used. The machines create both electronic and paper copies of the tallied votes.
Absentee or paper ballots filled out at the polling station can be placed into optical scan machines that read a person's marked ballot.
Voting Systems


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smithlt 		Latest page update: made by smithlt , May 13 2008, 11:02 AM EDT (about this update About This Update smithlt Edited by smithlt

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