Tell Patch If You See Election Shenanigans In Travis County

Tony Cantu
Updated ·2 min read

AUSTIN, TX — The high-stakes 2020 presidential and general election is two months away, but early voting is already taking place. The coronavirus pandemic is increasing interest in mail-in balloting — something about 100 million people are eligible to do.

Because of the surge in absentee balloting and the record-setting level of early voting in Travis County and elsewhere, the nonprofit investigative news organization ProPublica has launched its Electionland tip lines early this year. Patch has joined the coalition of newsrooms participating in the Electionland project to discover problems that prevent eligible voters from accessing or casting their ballots during or ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.

Patch participated in the Electionland project in the 2016 election, working with ProPublica to bring you information on broken scanners and long lines at the polls in Brooklyn, the extension of voting hours in Durham County, North Carolina, due to technical issues, voting improprieties in Texas, an election day shooting in Azusa, California, and much more.

Related story: Elections Officials Warn Voters About Austin-Originated Letters

ProPublica wants to hear about any problems that may prevent people from voting — mail ballot delivery problems, voting location changes, long lines, registration problems, purged voter rolls, broken machines, voter intimidation and the like.

Our journalists and those at other newsrooms taking part in the Electionland project will do they can to document and verify what readers tell us about voting and Election Day experiences. One of the most important parts of the Electionland project is to hear directly from voters. There are several ways to do that:

  • SMS: Text the word VOTE, VOTA (for Spanish) or 投票 (for Chinese) to 81380 (standard text message rates apply).

  • WhatsApp: Send the word VOTE, VOTA (for Spanish) or 投票 (for Chinese) to 850-909-8683.

  • Facebook Messenger: Go to m.me/electionland.

  • Submit the form below.


This article originally appeared on the Austin Patch