The Llano County Elections Office mailed Overseas and Military Ballots before September 19 and is in the process of mailing the Absentee Ballots By Mail (ABBM) requested by 1,930 Llano County voters.
Llano County Elections Administrator Cindy Ware said the ABBM will be be put in the mail late this week. “We’ve had a lot of phone calls from the public wondering why they haven’t received their ballots. I believe this is because the media has publicized the fact that some states have already mailed their ballots. We met the September 19 deadline to mail the Overseas and Military Ballots and are now working on getting the rest of them out. If you don’t receive your ballot by October 5, you should call the Elections Office and check on the status.”
Voters who opt to vote by mail will have to affix a first class stamp (current cost 55 cents) to the return envelopes containing their ballots. Or voters can deliver their completed mail ballot in person at the Elections Office in Llano. Anyone who requested and received an ABBM has the option to vote in person by surrendering their ABBM at the polling location.
With no straight party voting this election, voters may want to look over a sample ballot before showing up at polling places. Sample ballots are on each county’s website. Due to several local races that were postponed from May 2, including contests for Llano Independent School District Board of Trustees, Kingsland Municipal Utility District Board of Directors, and the City of Llano City Council, Llano County has a total of 21 different ballots this election! Fortunately, the all the ballots are only two pages long, with national and state races on the first page and all local races on the second page (along with a dribble of statewide races).
Despite some court challenges to get so called third party presidential candidates removed from the ballot in Texas, as of press time, Texas ballots will carry not only President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden as candidates for the top office, but also Jo Jorgensen (Libertarian Party) and Howie Hawkins (Green Party). Voters may opt to write in someone other than the four listed candidates. In the 2016 Presidential Election, 51,261 Texans cast ballots for 13 write in candidates in the state.
Ware says enough poll workers are available to work during early voting and on Election Day. “The Election Judges have done an outstanding job recruiting poll workers for this election.”
People with more than one residence have options as to where they may vote. The issue of where a person may register to vote has been litigated and analyzed by Texas courts for decades. Most recent cases have involved college student and “winter Texan” residency, but are applicable to all Texas adults. Texas courts have consistently ruled that residency is a combination of “intention and fact.” Coupled with the voter’s intention, there must also exist a physical connection to the place in which a voter is claiming residence.
The one constant in the tests regarding residency that have been approved by the Texas courts is that no one factor is dispositive. In 1964, the Texas Supreme Court said that residence depends upon the circumstances surrounding the person involved and the present intention of the individual. “Volition, intention and action are all elements to be considered in determining where a person resides and such elements are equally pertinent in denoting the permanent residence or domicile.…Neither bodily presence alone nor intention alone will suffice to create the residence, but when the two coincide at that moment the residence is fixed and determined. There is no specific length of time for the bodily presence to continue.”
In a 1996 case, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said that evidence of intent to establish residence may include such factors as where a person “exercises civil and political rights, pays taxes, owns real and personal property, has driver’s and other licenses, maintains bank accounts, belongs to clubs and churches, has places of business or employment, and maintains a home for his family.”
The San Antonio Court of Civil Appeals in 1966 specifically addressed voters who spend time in different locations, saying, “Many voters who travel are in the position of naming the best home they can under the circumstances.”
In a 2004 Election Law Opinion, then Texas Secretary of State Geoffrey S. Connor refined the “intent” factor in determining one’s residency for purposes of voting. “An applicant filling out a Texas voter registration form is not required to state that the residence will be his or her home forever, or for the next five years, or even the next year. The applicant is only required for administrative reasons to submit the application 30 days before the election in which the applicant wishes to vote.”
The deadline to register to vote or to make changes to your voter registration for the 2020 November 3 General Election is October 5. The early voting period has been expanded this year and runs from October 13 through October 30. Contact the Llano County Elections Office at (325) 247-5425 for more information.
