Tuesday is election day and 782 polling locations across Harris County will open at 7 a.m.
Elections officials say they’re anticipating a high turnout on Tuesday and encourage voters to come prepared for longer lines at polls. Harris County Elections Administrator Clifford Tatum warned that as voters head out to cast their ballots, the new voting machines now print voter selections onto paper ballots. He said some voters struggled with the paper ballots during early voting.
“For certain voters their second page of their ballot is not printing properly and it has a lot to do with the way the voter is inserting the paper into the machine and how they’re attempting to pull that paper out of the machine,” he said.
Poll workers will be at every site to assist voters if they’re having trouble with the voting machines.
Tatum said that there will be long wait times for voters, but they could possibly cut down the time by printing out a sample ballot to review to help cut down on the time they spend in the voting booth.
“Harris County has the longest ballot in the nation,” Tatum said. “It will take our voters roughly seven to ten minutes to vote a ballot, that’s if they’re prepared.”
Polling locations close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Those in line by 7 p.m. will be able to cast a ballot.