Guadalupe County Elections officials encourage voters to look over, utilize their sample ballots at the polls
(Seguin) — Voters are encouraged to be as prepared as possible before heading to the polls during this year’s March Primary Election.
Guadalupe County Elections Administrator Lisa Hayes says she is encouraging voters to take advantage of the availability of sample ballots for the Republican and Democratic March Primaries.
The early voting period is set to begin this coming Monday, Feb. 14.
Hayes says sample ballots are available in both the Seguin and the Schertz Elections offices and on the Guadalupe County Elections Office website,
“We have on our website a sample ballot look up tool basically — that allows the voter to enter their first name, their last name and their date of birth and it will access our system. It will pull up the sample ballot that is particular to the address to which that voter is registered. It’s a great tool. It allows them to see what their going to see on the ballot when they come to the polls. They can accomplish the same thing by coming to our office and giving us their information and we can look up their sample ballot and hand them a sample ballot but some voters like the convenience of being able to do this at home,” said Hayes.
When voters look up their sample ballot, Hayes reminds them that they’ll notice two available options for the Primary election.
“There are two options for them. There is a Republican ballot and a Democratic ballot and because this is a Primary Election, voters have both options. So, they can print both. They can look at both. They can do anything they want with both of those sample ballots. They can mark the sample ballot and bring it into the polls and use it as a voting guide. That’s completely legal but what the voters need to know about the sample ballot is even though they can access both parties’ sample ballots, when they come to the polls to vote, they have to pick a party because it’s a Primary Election,” said Hayes.
Hayes says being able to access your sample ballot is even more important this time around as it might just show a few voting changes due to redistricting.
“The sample ballots are a great tool. We just finished redistricting. Everybody should have gotten their new voter registration certificate. They are blue and white. That has their districts on there. This is a great opportunity for the voters to see what has changed for them. They may have changed commissioner precincts. They may have changed U.S. Rep districts, state senate districts. Any of these things could have changed and so the sample ballot gives them a tool to look at this information and familiarize themselves with the candidates that they are going to see on the ballot and the races. If they are voting on the Republican ballot, they have propositions on the Republican ballot. The Democratic ballot does not have any propositions. So, there are differences aside from the party differences. There are differences in the content. It’s a fabulous tool that I wish more of our voters would take advantage of. The best part is you can mark it and bring it in and use it as a voter’s guide and that way you don’t have to try and necessarily remember how you want to vote. You have it written down right there,” said Hayes.
The sample ballots along with the early voting schedule and locations are available on the elections office website found at
co.guadalupe.tx.us/elections/.