Photo courtesy Election Systems & SoftJersey Village to use paper ballots in May election
The City of Jersey Village will use a paper ballot voting system for its May 12 city council election due to the regular Harris County electronic equipment not being available to rent.
To improve the voting process for military and overseas voters who may encounter time delays with the standard vote by mail process, the Texas Legislature enacted Senate Bill 100 last year. The bill requires that ballots be mailed or emailed to military and overseas voters no later than 45 days before the election.
The change means that the early voting period for the primary runoff election will interfere with municipal elections as the May uniform election date will now fall between the March primary and the May primary runoff. For 2012, early voting for the primary runoff will begin two days after the May uniform election date, making it impossible for the county to provide electronic voting equipment to Jersey Village.
"Since we won't be able to rent any machines from the county, we had to figure out a way to operate our election," said Lorri Coody, city secretary.
