{"id":12115,"date":"2020-09-10T18:22:36","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T18:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12115"},"modified":"2020-09-10T18:22:37","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T18:22:37","slug":"advocates-for-texans-encourage-a-plan-to-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=12115","title":{"rendered":"Advocates for Texans encourage a \u201cplan\u201d to vote"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Election officials in Texas expect a record number of people to vote by mail this year, although not everyone is eligible to do so.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Photo: ParentRap\/Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By ROZ BROWN<\/strong>
Texas News Service<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Since the arrival of coronavirus, Texas and other states have struggled to figure out how to conduct elections both safely and securely. But one voting advocacy group says it doesn\u2019t need to be scary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Texas there are strict rules about voting by mail, but last week Harris County, the most populous county in Texas, announced it would send every registered voter a mail-in ballot for the general election. That was the same process used in other states for primary elections to acknowledge the risks of COVID-19 at crowded polling places.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bee Moorhead, executive director of Texas Impact, said it\u2019s not extraordinary to \u201cplan\u201d to vote, any more than it\u2019s extraordinary to \u201cplan\u201d a trip to the pharmacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a thing that\u2019s like going to the store or taking your kid to school; it\u2019s a thing you can know, you can see it ahead of time and know what it\u2019s going to look like,\u201d Moorhead said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get ready for November 3, Moorhead encourages residents to check their voter registration<\/a> now, instead of waiting until the last minute. For the March primary election and the July primary runoff, Harris County, which has 2.4 million residents on its voter roll, saw a more than 100% increase in vote-by-mail applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, Texas Impact teamed up with Austin\u2019s University Presbyterian Church to make sure every congregation member 65 and older who wanted a mail-in ballot received one \u2013 even delivering the ballots in virus-proof plastic bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moorhead said most faith communities have members who are older and therefore more vulnerable to COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd the one thing that we can do that is not partisan, it doesn\u2019t have anything to do with partisan politics, is to make sure that the vulnerable seniors in our church have a shot at voting by mail,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Postal Service recommends Texans ask for mail-in ballots no later than 15 days out from Election Day to ensure adequate turnaround time. If you choose to go to your polling place, Moorhead suggests it might feel less scary if you plan to go with a partner, friend or family member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ROZ BROWNTexas News Service AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Since the arrival of coronavirus, Texas and other states have struggled to figure out how to conduct elections both safely and securely. But one voting advocacy group says it doesn\u2019t need to be scary. In Texas there are strict rules about voting by mail, but last week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12116,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12115\/revisions\/12116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}