Williamson County sees some confusion from voters on election day

Mercedez Hernandez
·2 min read

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — Williamson County’s elections administrator said this week’s election came with the same familiar speedbumps she sees during most elections.

Judith Ritchie, elections administrator, said elections ran smoothly for the most part on Tuesday. Some of the county’s more heavily foot-trafficked polling sites, like those in grocery stores, had the typical line of locals waiting to cast their ballots.

As voting districts between counties become muddied as they grow closer together, Ritchie said poll workers also encountered voters registered in other counties that needed to be redirected.

“Every election, there are one or two folks that come into Williamson, and we have to say, ‘No, you have to vote in Travis.’ So now they have to travel that way. We always, always emphasize to our voters to make a plan,” Ritchie said.

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Anna Silverwolfe of Hutto was not among those able to cast their ballots on election day.

Silverwolfe said she went to her typical polling place to discover it was not in operation that day.

“There were probably about 15 other cars in the parking lot. And when I walked up to the door, I saw the sign, and it said voting had been moved to 200 College St. I don’t know where that is,” Silverwolfe said.

We asked Ritchie about this. She said polling sites are determined based on the space’s availability. While Silverwolfe’s typical polling place had been used during early voting, it was not available for election day.

“We put some signs in the front indicating the four nearest locations around there were. A lot of these voting places are repetitive, right? So people get used to that and go to that place,” Ritchie said.

Ahead of the next election, Ritchie encourages voters to check the county’s resources on polling sites and even make a phone call to the county if confusion persists on election day.

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