FULL: Harris County Clerk talks Election Day voting

Take you live to Harris County election headquarters. This is where Harris County Clerk Tanisha Hudspeth has just started speaking about election day and what to expect. So let's take you there live now. Officially election day. What happened, right? Those weeks and days just went by very quickly. And here we are well after 10 o'clock and more than 83,000 voters here in Harris County have cast their ballots in the midterm election. Again, today is election day, the final and last opportunity to cast your ballot in the midterm elections. Voters will vote on everything from our statewide races all the way way down to your most local races here in Texas. And it is important to know there are 600 623 total voting centers today, 623 voting centers across Harris County, more than enough voting centers for voters to make their selection, whether it's a location where you work, near where you work, a location where you drop the kids off at school. If you're like my child, he's actually out. He gets a day out on election day. Or if it's near where you go and shop, 623 locations, you can go absolutely anywhere. I keep people saying the precinct in which you're registered. We stopped voting by precinct in 2019, so voters can go absolutely anywhere in Harris County. If you're in another political subdivision, you'll have to vote in that jurisdiction. The polls close at 7 o'clock p.m. today, last opportunity, 7 p.m. today. As long as voters are in line by 7 p.m., you will have the opportunity to cast your ballot. Now, 7 p.m. does not mean parking and running from the parking lot. It means physically at the door. At 7pm so that voters are so that the election workers can designate that you were at the door by 7pm. If you vote by mail, if you vote by mail and you have that ballot by mail in hand, you have two options. One is to take your actual ballot by mail to the only drop off location, which is downtown at 1019 Congress. 1019 Congress, there is a tent that signifies you can bring your ballot by mail. You will still have to show photo ID when you go to that one drop-off location. Or you can take your mail ballot to any voting center today, surrender that mail ballot, and cast a regular ballot. Again, if you're a ballot by mail voter and you have your ballot in hand, today would be a great time to drop off at 1019 Congress. or go to a vote center to vote a regular ballot. If you did not receive your ballot by mail, I've said this before, I'm the county clerk of elections, not of the U.S. postal system. So if it did not arrive, we encourage you to go vote today. If you're unable to leave your car, sick or disabled, you can vote curbside. Every single one of those 623 vote centers have a curbside option. You will have to sign an oath and show identification. If you are looking and making your plan to vote because this whole model around this entire election has been about plan, check, vote, check your voter registration, make a plan, go to harrisvotes.com for everything you need to know, or you can call us on our hotline at 713-755-6965, 713. 755-6965. And those wonderful people behind me are the folks that are answering your calls to support you on today. You can also download Harris Votes on your mobile device, anywhere you get your mobile store and your apps. You can go to Harris Votes there. You can even check the wait time features. Right now, we have had a steady flow of voters since 7 o'clock a.m. If it's green, means go. Yellow means, you know, a little bit of traffic. Red is there is probably a line. And I know how much you all like to stand in line. Sometimes they have a party at the polls, but you really do have 623 locations to choose from today. Again, HarrisVotes.com, as you're making your plan, also take your time to study your sample ballot. Every Harris County voter on average will have more. More than 100 contests to vote on from the top all the way down to the bottom. So check your sample ballot out. You can print that out. Any written materials can be brought into the polling location with you. Again, written materials, not your cellular device or any recording device with written materials on the phone, right? So any sample ballots, written materials, so on and so forth. Tonight we will come back at 7 o'clock or shortly after about 7.30 this evening. bring to you the first set of results, right? All those who voted early in person, all those who have voted by mail shortly around 730 today. Again, our call center is taking in calls from election workers and for individuals in the field as well as voters to help you make a plan to vote and go and cast your ballot again. Absolutely. Anywhere is where you can go today. At the start of the morning, we had one location out of 623 that was not ready on time. It has been addressed. They have been voting voters. And again, I've always said this is not a flawless process, but we work very hard. And when you have people involved, there can sometimes be delays. Again, one vote center out of 623 that was not ready to go right at 7 o'clock a.m., but have been voting voters. And we have addressed those concerns there at that polling location. Are there any questions? Yes, that was the Baker-Ripley Community Center at Galton. Baker-Ripley Community Center at Galton. Yes, sir. Well, we're getting real lucky right now because the weather is beautiful. We've been watching the weather to see if there's going to be rain to come in. We still continue to move forward, right? We don't know what the weather will bring, but we are prepared. We even sent ponchos out to our election workers at every single location to be prepared for curbside voters or to make sure they can get in and out of the building. But Harris County, please continue to give us good weather through the rest of this day. Yes, sir. Yes, provisional voting. First of all, voters need to know there are seven qualifying IDs that you should have when you show up to vote. One of those is a driver's license. The other is a personal ID card, handgun license, military ID, election ID, citizenship certificate, or U.S. passport. They must all have photo IDs. If you don't have one of those documents, you can fill out what is called a reasonable impediment form and offer up other items. A main reason someone could have to receive a provisional ballot. It could be a plethora of things, something with their voter registration. Maybe they received a mail ballot or a mail ballot was sent to them, but they've not received it in hand to surrender. So, again, check to make sure you're registered to vote. The goal is to vote a regular ballot. If you have to vote a provisional, you will go ahead and be processed the provisional and you find out after election day whether the ballot was accepted or not accepted. Again, every single one of those 623 locations will be able to help you and assist you today. If you're not sure of your status, they're able to call the voter registrar's office and get that information. Did I see another hand? Right here, we're going, yes, sir. It was the provisional voting process. Absolutely. Yes, sir. Actually, they're going to refresh the screen again. At that moment, it was 83,000 votes. But it is a moving target. I mean, 623 locations, they're all processing and checking in voters as we go. So give me just a second, and my team is going to refresh the screen and let us know just how many. We've hit over a hundred thousand and it's not even noon yet. A hundred and over a hundred and twelve thousand voters have cast their ballots within two hours. Yeah, have cast their ballots here in Harris County. So we have hit the hundred thousand mark of voters and they are coming in just a check in at a time at all of those locations. So over a hundred and twelve thousand. And I just gave you eighty three thousand. That shows you how many people, how many voters were able to check in and real time at every vote center. And again, the ballots long. So they check in, they vote their ballot. But as soon as we get. The check-in is where we're able to track how many people are coming in to vote at every single vote center. They're giving me another... Okay, sorry, sorry, sorry. I miscounted. That was 86,000 votes. 86,000 votes. I was going to say, that moved really fast. So 86,000 votes, but I hope before noon we get to the 100,000 mark. 86,000 voters have voted, so please make that correction at this very time. I don't have the timestamp. And our hope is that we get to over 100,000 by noon. Okay? We got that. Thank you. Yeah, so there have been many questions about the Department of Justice sending monitors. First of all, let me say, this is not anything new. I've been doing this work for 21 years under many administrations, and now I'm the county clerk. DOJ monitors normally come during a presidential or whenever there's a federal election or midterm. And so those individuals are here now around the county, outside the 100-foot marker. By law, in the state of Texas, DOJ monitors can be outside of polls. Outside the 100-foot marker, not within the 100 feet. And we've been receiving updates all morning long of what locations they are at or when they go to another location. So this is a very transparent process. No one's, you know, hiding anything. We are fully aware of how many monitors, where the monitors are at, and where they're going throughout the day. And they're not just going to one location. They're going to different locations throughout the day. So, again, by law, DOJ monitors can be here, but they can only be outside the 100-foot marker at every single voting center. DOJ monitors are not. We're not the only monitors that are out in the field today, right? We also have congressional observers. Those individuals are allowed within 100 foot of the polling location, including state monitors or state observers. The Secretary of State always sends individuals on Election Day throughout early voting. They are all credentialed, though. They cannot just walk into the building and start observing or having conversations with the elections workers. They all have to show their credentials of who they are and why they are there. So those are not the only monitors. And then, of course, these individuals are not monitors, but poll watchers are allowed by law. The Texas Election Code allows for poll watchers to be inside the polling location. with proper certificate on behalf of a candidate or measure on behalf of a political party. So those individuals are poll watching throughout the county too at different locations. So again the Texas Election Code allows for a lot of different individuals to play their role in the process. Our job in the meantime while election workers are working is to support them and make sure that we have accurate information around the clock. Yes ma'am. No. It's been a cooperative election day. Again, I don't have those locations off the top of my head, but since this morning, we have had a list of locations that they're going to. We know where they're at. We know when they're going to the next location. So there's been no disruptions. Again, 86,000 people have voted. It's probably more than now. So again, the DOJ monitors are saying without 100 outside the 100 foot marker, it's been a cooperative operation. They have been contacting our office and giving us real time information. So voters should be concerned about casting their ballot. That's what they need to be concerned about. Not monitors, right? Everyone's in their rightful place doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing here in Harris County. And we just want to encourage those. Don't sit all day and wait because if rain does come, this is the perfect opportunity to get out there and not get caught in traffic and go cast your ballot. Yes, ma'am. I'm not concerned about any more attention from the AG's office. We are doing our job, and we are doing our job well. We are following the law, and so I'm not into any distractions. I'm into doing my job and making sure that all Harris County voters have the access and the information they need. So, Harris County, don't worry about that. Let's get out to vote. Yes. No, I'm still gathering details about Baker Ripley. I do know that they're voting, and our teams have been out there supporting them. So I'm still gathering all the information about Baker Ripley. And let's focus on the fact that there's 623 total, not one location. Yes, sir. That's just today. That's correct. So the end of early voting through early voting period 12 whole days, more than a million individuals in Harris County have already cast their ballot. Okay. And so that was just early voting. Now election day. We'll know the numbers by the end of today. But as of this time, we have a little over 86,000 that have cast ballots just for election day. And and so soon we'll know exactly how that trend continues. Will the turnout continue to move faster? Through the late night or will it kind of slow down a bit? That's why I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that we don't get any rain or any disruptive weather throughout the day because for some reason we like to stay home when when it starts raining or stay put. So again, only a little over 86,000. Can you update a number for me? 88,000 now. Okay, so it's a moving target in terms of check ins. Yes, sir. It's our wait time feature. So if you're wondering if there's traffic at a vote center and how do you know that, it is our wait time feature that's on harrisvotes.com or on our mobile app. When you go to every single voting location, there's either going to be a green, yellow, or red dot. The green dot obviously means go. Very simple. Yellow means there might be a little bit of traffic. Red means likely there is a line or there's a good group of people. Excuse me at that vote center. So the wait time feature is to help you make that plan to know whether there's a line or not. If you've got a short period of time and you're voting during lunch, you're going to want to choose a vote center that has less traffic. Again, you can vote absolutely anywhere. So please share the message that you don't have to vote in the precinct in which you are registered. People get really stuck on that. And what's important is you can go absolutely anywhere in Harris County to cast your ballot. You don't have to drive. Clear across the county by your house. You can go anywhere near where you're at today. Again, all this information, it is at harrisvotes.com. Now, polls will... As long as individuals are in line by 7 p.m., they will be permitted to vote. There could be voters still in line well after 7 because they were in line by then and we have to process each and every one of those voters. You will know at that 7.30 time frame when we get ready to run the early voting results, you know, if we still have voters voting, about how many locations do we think voters are voting, right? And it will be a late night. I believe that we're going to have voters voting. All well into the evening as long as they're in line by 7 p.m. At 623 locations, it will take us some time to start getting election night results, election day results only. Yes, sir. His question is, all eyes are on Harris County, does that worry me or anything like that? No. You know what? Before I became county clerk, I worked in the office for 15 years under four county clerks. I learned what to do and I learned what not to do, and one of those things is not worrying. It is focusing on your job and making sure that we are doing the best job that we can. Also, I don't do this alone. There are hundreds and thousands of individuals behind the scenes working to help us prepare. We didn't just prepare two months ago. We've been preparing for this election for the entire year. And so now I'm not worried. I'm I'm just ready to get to the end and get some sleep as well. Most excited about. So thank you for that question. Yes, sir. Yeah, what do I believe the urgency is behind the record-breaking numbers? There's a lot on the ballot that constituents and citizens are really concerned about, right? I think we can all agree that our economy is impacting everyone. It doesn't matter your background, your age, where you live. The economy is impacting all of us. Everyone. And so it's about their business to vote from the federal ticket all the way down to the most local to make their voices heard. And so there's a lot of things that are happening, sometimes misinformation across many different social media platforms. I can't tell you exactly what a voter thinks. That might be something you can do today talking to a voter. But what I will tell you is what I believe is we are all impacted in some kind of way. And that is what's driving large turnout. Also what drives turnout is the people that are running for office. Who's on the ballot? What are their platforms? What's important to voters? And so that's why we're seeing record number turnout. Some of the reasons why, right? I don't know all the answers. Why we see record number turnout in this midterm election. Either way, I'm just excited. Doesn't matter who people vote for. It matters that they exercise their most fundamental right to vote. All right. Thank you all so very much. As you can imagine, we are very busy. We thank you for your time. Harrisvotes.com for everything you need to know. The hotline 713-755-6965. And I look forward to seeing you at the end of voting day. Thank you.