Effectiveness of Early Voting Centers - thanks Janice Weaver for sharing!

"Voting centers prove popular as half of Harris County voters cast ballots outside home precincts"
-Houston Chronicle, 11/26/19

Dear Janice,


As we approach this Thanksgiving Holiday, I am so thankful for the support of people like you. I am also thankful for our many community partners who have been there for us to help make all of our first year achievements possible.

1. Countywide Voting Centers - As promised, my team and I have made voting simpler and more convenient by making it possible to #voteYOURway at any location on Election Day.Half of the voters this November chose a location other than their home location.

2. Extended Early Voting Hours - We wanted to make sure that our hard working families had time to vote before or after work during both weeks of Early Voting instead of just one.

3. Additional Early Voting Locations - We opened 6 new Early Voting sites including the campuses of Texas Southern University and the University of Houston bringing the total number of Early Voting locations to 52.

4. Textbot Poll Finder and Wait Time Features - We developed 2 new features to tell you how to find the nearest voting location and also how to find the shortest lines.

5. Election Judge Training - We improved our election judge training and included additional ADA and sensitivity training for all election workers. In fact, Harris County is the first county in Texas to include information on supporting transgender and nonbinary voters.

6. More Transparent Website - We updated the harrisvotes.com website by including information on the application process for Voting Centers, easy to find election reports, and added aCommunity Toolkit with downloadable assets.

7. New Wallisville Annex - We opened our 11th annex location so that customers would not have to drive so far to get copies of vital documents.

8. Sexual Harrassment Training - All 333 employees completed Sexual Harrassment and Sensitivity training.

9. ADA Lawsuit - We settled a six year old ADA lawsuit from the last administration by providing greater access for all voters.

10. New Marriage License - We created a new more modern design with a new Harris County Clerk logo showing the skyline of "can do" city of Houston.

With your continuing help, the sky is the limit as to what we can accomplish together. Thank you again for standing with me and for your support. Best wishes to you and yours for a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Onward!

Signature - Diane (sharpee)

Diane Trautman
Harris County Clerk