Early voting for the Nov. 3 general election begins Tuesday, which will include voting for the U.S. presidential election and the U.S. senate election.
Travis County residents can vote at polling sites on campus, located in the Flawn Academic Center and Gregory Gym until Oct. 30, the last day for early voting, or on election day, Nov. 3.
The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday, according to the Travis County Clerk website. Those planning to vote by mail must request a mail-in ballot by Oct. 23.
“Depending on where the student lives, there are 37 early voting locations throughout Travis County,” Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir said. “(Students) should go to VoteTravis.com and look up polling places, especially early voting, and go into those and look for a location convenient and close to them.”
DeBeauvoir said students can find approximate wait times for each polling site at VoteTravis.com to avoid long lines and choose the best location.
“Obviously, it’s the presidential election we have all heard so much about,” DeBeauvoir said. “We’ll have Texas Senate candidates on the ballot also.”
In addition to the presidential race, the ballot will include voting for the U.S. Senate race between Democrat Mary “MJ” Hegar and incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, and local races such as city council seats and district attorney.
“At the very last part of the ballot, voters will see a list of the names and offices that candidates are running for who are not opposed, so their names will still appear on the ballot,” DeBeauvoir said. “Contested (names) are first so that voters can mark those and move through the ballot quickly.”
DeBeauvoir said the best advice she has for voters is to avoid misinformation.
“There’s a lot of misinformation and plain, old ugliness going on in social media,” DeBeauvoir said. “I think voters would better serve their own interest if they just stopped listening to all of those crazy theories out there, just turn it off, and do the one thing that a voter can do: Go vote.”
