Lots Of New First Time Voters In Collin County

This year marks the first time that the new, statewide, centralized voter-registration database will be used in a November federal election in Texas. The Texas centralized voter-registration database was used for the very first time during the Texas March 4th Primary Election.

Statewide, centralized voter-registration databases were mandated in the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which requires all election districts in a state or U.S. territory to consolidate their lists into a single database electronically accessible to every election office in the state or territory.

The law requires each voter to have a unique identifier. Since 2004, new registration applicants have had to provide a Driver's License number (DL#) or the last four digits of a Social Security number (SS#) to register (voters who don't have them are assigned a unique number by the state). States are required to try to authenticate the numbers with motor vehicle records and the Social Security Administration database.

But data entry of voter registration application information is prone to errors such as name misspellings and transposed numbers. Voter registration applicants are prone to make mistakes writing out their DL# and SS# or they write illegibly on applications. The Social Security Administration also acknowledges that matches between its database and voter-registration records have yielded a 28.5 percent error rate. For example: A woman who recently married and changed her name often fail to match government records containing her maiden name and voters who have double or hyphenated last names, very long names or unusually spelled names are also prone to match failures.

Collin County will likely have over 30,000 new voters, possibly as many as 45,000 newly registered voters, who have turned in a voter registration application over the past few weeks and months. That means there has been, and continues to be, a lot of fast and furious data entry and voter verification activity in the county and Secretary of State Elections Office for the November elections. The Collin County Elections Office has a good track record of accurately processing registration applications, but remember, they are interfacing with the new State of Texas voter registration database and attending computer application software in this very high registration activity and potentially high voter turnout November presidential election. New voter registration activity has been heavy all over Texas, with over half a million new voters, so all that new software is being pushed hard for the first time!

For those first-time voters where the registration application name, DL# and SS# information is verified, then all is good. If for some reason the county elections office could not match an applicant's DL#, SS# or name with the Texas State Driver's License database or the Social Security Administration database, then the first time voter will be asked to show election officials identification when they go to their polling place to vote. [Texas State Election Code Sec. 13.122(d) and 18.005(a)(4)]

So, new first time voters, don't be surprised if you are asked to show one of the accepted forms identification along with your voter registration card when you sign in to vote. And, Elections Judges, be aware that you may have more "ID Required" voters to process in this election.

I strongly recommend that if you are a new first time voters who has just registered, you should vote early this year. If there has been any minor snafu in processing your voter registration application, it is usually much easier for the Election Judge to help you resolve the snafu during the early voting period. Every voter, particularly first time voters, should check their registration status on the Collin County or Texas Secretary of State website before going to the polling place to stand in line to vote. If you do not find your name in the voter registration database, you can call the elections office from home to resolve the problem. Check your registration status through the Collin County website here. Check your registration status through the Texas Secretary of State website here.

Early voting starts on Monday October 20th at 8AM and continues until Friday 7PM on October 31st at several convenient locations around Collin County on October 20th 2008.

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat
Oct 19	Oct 20 Early Voting 8am-5pm	Oct 21 Early Voting 8am-5pm	Oct 22 Early Voting 8am-5pm	Oct 23 Early Voting 8am-5pm	Oct 24 Early Voting 8am-5pm	Oct 25 Early Voting 7am-7pm
Oct 26 Early Voting 1pm-6pm	Oct 27 Early Voting 7am-7pm	Oct 28 Early Voting 7am-7pm	Oct 29 Early Voting 7am-7pm	Oct 30 Early Voting 7am-7pm	Oct 31 Early Voting 7am-7pm	Nov 1

Please remember to take your Voter's Registration Card with you to the early voting polling place when you vote.

Please DO NOT cut the bar code off of the orange card - election clerks can use the bar code to electronically verify your voter registration status, which makes the voting lines move much faster for everyone!!!

Did you receive your Orange Voter's Registration Card? If you did not receive an orange registration card during 2008, your voting registration record may have been "suspended" or "purged." Check your registration status here.