A committee of Montgomery County residents will spend 2016 investigating the possibility of implementing vote centers in 2017. County commissioners approved the committee’s formation in September after members of the Voter Awareness Council brought the idea to the Commissioners Court’s attention.

“2016 will be the process of investigating and learning more about the concept and assessing its applicability to Montgomery County,” VAC President Steve Leakey said. “Ultimately, we will have to go to Commissioners Court with a final recommendation one way or the other, and they would have to approve the final package.”

There are more than 30 counties in Texas that use vote centers, including Galveston, Fort Bend and Williamson counties. The centers operate similar to early voting locations, which allows registered voters to cast their ballot at any location in the county and not at a specific precinct.

One of the biggest benefits a vote center offers is convenience, Leakey said.

“On Election Day you have to go to your precinct, which may have moved and you didn’t know it, or it may not be convenient to you—it’s close to where you live but not close to where you conduct your daily business,” he said. “A voter can go to any vote center location so they aren’t tied to the geographical nature of a precinct.”

Voting centers would also mean the technology to vote—having the right ballot ready for each voter and recording the votes—would be consistent countywide.

“During early voting the technology is consistent at every location, but on Election Day there is still a lot of variety in the various technical capabilities at the precinct locations,” Leakey said. “Those kinds of things would have to change.”

Committee chair Amy Lecocq said the committee plans to explore and review the experiences of other counties that use vote centers to research the advantages and drawbacks.

“If that pans out, we’ll move to the next stage, which is getting a more concrete proposal,” she said. “That would include what vote centers would look like in our county, the number and possibly locations.”

The committee plans to reach out to the community for suggestions regarding the locations of vote centers, Lecocq said.

“People who live, work, travel and play in this county know best where these vote centers should be located,” she said. “We’ll be asking governmental entities, businesses and others to propose locations in the county. We will at some point have an outreach for suggestions, and we would appreciate input.”