voting

Casting Your Vote: What to Expect

A Collin County Elections Administrator gives a step-by-step process on how to cast a ballot

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In just a few weeks, voters across the country and in Texas will begin to cast a ballot for the November midterm elections.

Bruce Sherbet, Collin county elections administrator, said the process to vote really is a three-step process once a voter arrives at their ballot location.

First, a voter must have an approved form of identification. Then they receive a card and insert it into a nearby voting machine. From there, the voter casts their ballot. Voters then select their preferred language and place their votes on the touchscreen. Edits and a change of vote can be made before it is submitted and printed out. Once printed, the ballot is then inserted into another machine.

“Your vote has now been accumulated on the machine, and it drops down into a locked and secured ballot box within this unit,” said Bruce Sherbet, Collin County Elections Administrator.

There are other rules to keep in mind when voting.

“You can’t wear something that supports or opposes a candidate or an issue on the ballot.  It’s called electioneering and so you just can’t do that within 100 feet of the polling place,” said Sherbet.

Resource materials can be brought to the voting booth but must be kept to the voter. Cell phones are not allowed.

“I know we are so dependent on our cell phones now, people mark how they want to vote on their cell phone and take it in.  They can’t use a cell phone because it's a recording device,” added Sherbet.

Poll watchers will be also walking around the area. They have to be appointed, then trained.

“The poll watchers are entitled to have free movement within a polling place. The only exception to that free movement is they can’t watch a person voting their ballot, obviously, with one exception. If the election officials working at the location are physically assisting a voter to vote their ballot at the machine, then a poll watcher can observe that part of their process,” said Sherbet.

There are already banks already up and running to help answer your questions, and information online throughout the counties.

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