Pictured is the William N. “Billy” Hall Jr. Administration Building at 1110 Washington St. which houses the Webb County Elections Office.

Webb County leaders approved of moving forward with the Texas Central Polling program that would set up four polling sites throughout the county that would allow eligible voters to vote at the sites regardless of if they live in that precinct or not.

The motion to approve of submitting an application to move forward with central polling was approved unanimously Monday as the commissioners court took time to discuss concerns and further explain what central polling would mean for the November election and local voters.

Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina likened the program as an Election Day “early voting” site. He highlighted that the four sites would allow for a more convenient voting site that would be accessible to voters in the event they did not know what their precinct was or where their designated precinct voting site was. 

Central polling is slated to be implemented in the county in time for the November elections, and Jose Luis Castillo said that there would be one central polling site per each of the four precincts. He added that the new implementation would also see fewer polling sites, approximately 35% to 50% of previous sites, in favor of the central site.

The program was being discussed throughout the year, where Castillo indicated it would allow residents from any precinct to vote at the sites, regardless of the location they choose. However, to allocate the necessary manpower to the sites, he said that certain, previously unused polling sites will be shut down.

When commissioner Cindy Liendo brought up the concern, Castillo said that the shutting down of previous sites would allow for more manpower to be sent to the central polling sites. This seemed to reassure her, as she said that the central polling model would bring an increased voter turnout.

The commissioners also tasked Castillo to look into further privacy measures in time for the November elections. According to Tijerina, he had concerns regarding his privacy during his time in the voting booth as he believed it was “too open” and believed that privacy curtains or vision blockers would be a worthy investment come the upcoming election.

Castillo said that while those measures are expensive, he would monitor pricing. When asked about screens that block outside views from different angles, he added that that type of measure may conflict with the touchscreen nature of the voting machines.

Privacy has been previously discussed, as Commissioner John Galo also shared Tijerina’s concern in April. LMT reported at the time Galo said complaints were made, and he noticed that the voting computer angles allowed for surrounding voters to see who voted for who during the process. He believes that longer view plates were needed to obstruct voters from seeing one another’s screen.  Additionally, traffic concerns at the Laredo Fire Administration building brought up the idea to move it for the short-term.

Christian Alejandro Ocampo reports on education for the Laredo Morning Times. He originally joined LMT as a photographer.