DALLAS — As the early voting deadline quickly approaches, many residents across North Texas are counting down to Election Day. Still, some voters who applied for mail-in ballots claim they’ve yet to receive them. That has some people scrambling to figure out what to do.
”If you don’t have a mail ballot, then what I would suggest you do is you can vote in person or curbside,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins advised on Thursday.
County officials know there are concerns with mail ballot delays.
”I had to take my momma to vote in person curbside, yesterday, because of problems with her mail ballot,” Jenkins said.
Dallas County has been hearing from residents who claim they are still waiting for mail ballots to be delivered. The County said the U.S. Postal Service is partly to blame for the delays.
”The post office has had some issues,” Jenkins said, “That’s what happened to my mom. She mailed hers three weeks before she voted.”
Dallas County has been receiving fewer than 1,000 returned mail ballots per day. Jenkins describes those numbers as very low "when you consider that there at over 32,000 remaining outstanding and we only have a few days until the election."
So, with time ticking and the desire to vote extremely high, voters need to know their options.
”You’ve got a couple of choices if your ballot has not been received. One, you can call the Elections office, cancel that non-received ballot, and vote a regular ballot in person. Or you can just go vote a provisional ballot in the polls,” Jenkins explained.
The provisional ballot will count if your mail ballot is not received.
Residents who submitted ballots by mail are able to track the document. You can visit TXBallot.org. You just have to put in your name and your county or your voter ID number, and you can see if your ballot has been received.
Remember, county workers are predicting polling sites will be busy on Election Day. So, plan ahead.