The primary runoff election will take place on May 26, featuring races for candidates influential to UT and higher education policy.
Key contests include primary runoffs to select nominees who could become UT’s state representative, statewide officials and members of the United States Congress. Early voting and Election Day occur when many students are home for the summer. However, they can still cast their ballot by mail.
Voters can find mail-in ballot applications through the Travis County Clerk or request that the application be delivered to their residence.
Applications should be dropped off in person at the Travis County Elections Division or mailed to P.O. Box 149325, Austin, TX 78714 by May 15, according to the Travis County Clerk website. Travis County clerk Dyana Limon-Mercado said even if a person did not vote in the primary election, they are still eligible to vote in the runoffs, as long as they are registered to vote by April 27.
“We also suggest that people apply as soon as possible,” Limon-Mercado said. “When they return the ballot, they need to return it to us (and) it needs to be postmarked by 7 p.m. on election day.”
Limon-Mercado said when filling out the vote-by-mail application, people need to indicate their party affiliation, and she recommends voters include both their driver’s license identification number and the last four digits of their Social Security Number in the application.
Limon-Mercado said she also suggests that students send their applications and ballots as soon as possible and utilize paid carrier services, such as FedEx or the United States Postal Service, to ensure they arrive on time.
“The key issue here that a lot of people don’t anticipate is how many issues can come up with USPS,” Limon-Mercado said. “Not everybody has the means to be able to afford that service, but it’s just more guaranteed that your application will be here on time if you’re able to.”
Eliana Arriaga, government and Plan II sophomore and outreach director for TX Votes, said students should care about the primary runoff elections, especially since House District 49 is on the ballot. The district’s elected candidate will represent UT and West Campus in the Texas Legislature.
Joshua Blank, the director of research for the Texas Politics Project, wrote in an email that the winner of the race will “be the shortest connection point between (the) government and many in the UT community.”
The ballot will also include the Democratic nominee for Texas lieutenant governor, as well as both the Democratic and Republican nominees for the Texas attorney general.
“No higher education policy that contradicts the Lieutenant Governor’s preferences is likely to become law, so the Lieutenant Governor holds an immense amount of power over higher education policy in the state,” Blank wrote.
Blank said the attorney general, the state’s chief law enforcement officer, can use their power to “investigate all kinds of institutions, including institutions of higher education, for violations of the law, real or imagined.”
Arriaga said that although the process for requesting a mail-in ballot may be intimidating, she recommends that students request a ballot anyway.
“I just really encourage students to not let the grandness of the process scare them at all away from looking into how to request the ballot (or) letting those extra steps hinder them from casting their ballot,” Arriaga said.
