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County will not extend voter registration
By AUDREY M. MARKS
Despite lobbying from voter advocacy groups, Fort Bend County will not extend their voter registration deadline.
“I’m sympathetic,” John Oldham, county elections administrator said of those still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. “But by extending this a week we would not have time to get the registration up to date to start early voting.”
Fort Bend County residents have until 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 6 to register to vote for November’s elections.
Applications can be downloaded from the county’s website, http://www.fortbendcountygov.com, picked up at the local library, city hall or Elections Administration building at the Rosenberg Annex and mailed or dropped off at the Annex on 4520 Reading Road.
Despite a month dominated by Hurricane Ike recovery, Oldham said more than 4,000 Fort Bend residents registered to vote and 2,048 people changed their registration. But still more than 31,000 Fort Bend voters have a suspended status until they confirm their residency requirements.
“This is not an unusual number,” Oldham said of the suspended voters.
Voters can update their information on the county’s voting web site http://www.fortbendvotes.com or stop by the Rosenberg Annex to update their information. The information must be updated by Oct. 5 to be eligible for November’s election.
Oldham said the suspension of voters is part of Texas law that requires counties to do a nondiscriminatory purge of voter registration every two years. The county conducts its purge by sending every voter a registration card to verify residency.
The county first sends a non-forwardable registration card to a voter’s known mailing address. If they receive the card back they then send a forwardable card to the same mailing address asking voters to update their information and address.
“After the cards go out we typically get 15 percent of them back,” Oldham said. We “don’t get a good response on this because most of the people are gone and their forwarding address expires after a year.”
Voters with suspended registration will still be able to cast their ballots at their registered precinct on Election Day.
“If a voter is registered in Richmond and moves to Sugar Land on Election Day they will have to go to Richmond to vote,” Oldham said. “They can update their information so their voting records will now be in Sugar Land but they can’t go to their new neighborhood precinct they have to vote in the precinct they were last registered.”
Of course voters can avoid the Election Day madness of registered precincts by voting early as the 20 early voting sites will handle all 106 of Fort Bend’s November ballots.
Early voting begins Monday, Oct. 20 and runs through Friday, Oct. 31.
“I’m sympathetic,” John Oldham, county elections administrator said of those still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. “But by extending this a week we would not have time to get the registration up to date to start early voting.”
Fort Bend County residents have until 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 6 to register to vote for November’s elections.
Applications can be downloaded from the county’s website, http://www.fortbendcountygov.com, picked up at the local library, city hall or Elections Administration building at the Rosenberg Annex and mailed or dropped off at the Annex on 4520 Reading Road.
Despite a month dominated by Hurricane Ike recovery, Oldham said more than 4,000 Fort Bend residents registered to vote and 2,048 people changed their registration. But still more than 31,000 Fort Bend voters have a suspended status until they confirm their residency requirements.
“This is not an unusual number,” Oldham said of the suspended voters.
Voters can update their information on the county’s voting web site http://www.fortbendvotes.com or stop by the Rosenberg Annex to update their information. The information must be updated by Oct. 5 to be eligible for November’s election.
Oldham said the suspension of voters is part of Texas law that requires counties to do a nondiscriminatory purge of voter registration every two years. The county conducts its purge by sending every voter a registration card to verify residency.
The county first sends a non-forwardable registration card to a voter’s known mailing address. If they receive the card back they then send a forwardable card to the same mailing address asking voters to update their information and address.
“After the cards go out we typically get 15 percent of them back,” Oldham said. We “don’t get a good response on this because most of the people are gone and their forwarding address expires after a year.”
Voters with suspended registration will still be able to cast their ballots at their registered precinct on Election Day.
“If a voter is registered in Richmond and moves to Sugar Land on Election Day they will have to go to Richmond to vote,” Oldham said. “They can update their information so their voting records will now be in Sugar Land but they can’t go to their new neighborhood precinct they have to vote in the precinct they were last registered.”
Of course voters can avoid the Election Day madness of registered precincts by voting early as the 20 early voting sites will handle all 106 of Fort Bend’s November ballots.
Early voting begins Monday, Oct. 20 and runs through Friday, Oct. 31.
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