March 2020
WEATHER
9 MONDAY
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Tuesday
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The Voice of Seguin Today
Volume 55, Number 047 830-379-2234
Guadalupe County Elections Administrator releases voter number results for March Primary Elections
Guadalupe County works to wrap up March 3 Republican, Democratic Primary Elections By Cindy Aguirre-Herrera (Seguin) -- Guadalupe County Elections officials are applauding what they say was a very smooth and successful election process during last week's March 3 Republican and Democratic Primary Elections. Guadalupe County Elections Administrator Lisa Hayes says the feedback on early voting and election day has been great. "For us, I think the experience was amazing. The turnout was tremendous. The voters really came out. They made their voices heard. They were enthusiastic about voting and we love to see that. We love to see that. We do a lot of work to ensure that the elections go as smoothly as possible and so when we feel that the voters actually take advantage of that opportunity, it makes us very happy," said Hayes. Hayes says she believes the reported numbers during the Primary is only a springboard for what will be a record setting presidential election. "We've got our final unofficial results which, of course, are not the official results until all (the end) results have been canvassed so that's an important distinction because we will still have mail ballots out that are potentially
countable. We have provisional ballots that may still be countable and all of that won't really be determined until the canvass and I believe the parties are canvassing on March 12. So, after the party canvasses, then these will be official results. Until then, they are unofficial. But, what we did see, we saw that 13,062 people voted on election day. We had 12, 640 vote early and 1, 712 voted by mail and that resulted in a turnout of approximately 26.17 percent which is tremendous for a primary election," said Hayes. Hayes says her office started a long time ago planning for this record turnout throughout Guadalupe County and is appreciative to all those who showed up to the polls. "We hoped going into this that we
were going to have a high turnout because the voters had been very interested in the electoral process even since the Constitution
Amendment Election back in November. They were already starting to turn out in larger numbers and so we were expecting more people to come out and vote in the primary and we did see that. The turnout in the early voting portion of the election was much higher than we expected and election day turned out to be quite impressive also. I think it took them a little longer to get started on election day. We had a little while there that we
thought maybe we weren't going to see as many people but they sure did come out in droves by the end of the afternoon and we did end up with some lines at 7 o'clock and of course, as always, voters already in line at 7 can vote. So, that resulted in some of our results coming out a little later than we like to see them but we got our voters who were in line voted and we were able to get everything wrapped up and get results out there and that's what we tried to do," said Hayes. Hayes says it's a priority for her office to make the election process as easy and as simple as possible. She says it's not always easy but if it benefits the voters, then it's all worth it. "We are doing everything we can to keep the lines down. That's one of our primary goals in any election is to put
enough equipment out that we don't have long lines. We pride ourselves in keeping the lines down as much as possible. Part of the challenge we face with this is that it is not only the matter how much equipment we have as a county but how much equipment we can fit into a particular voting location. So, that is part of the challenge of trying to predict how many voters are going to vote and where they are going to vote because Vote Centers are so much more convenient for voters but it does present a little bit of a logistical challenge for us because now we have absolutely no way to tell where they are going to vote. We can look at historical data but that isn't always an accurate presentation where the voters are going to decide this election or how many voters are going to decide. So, it is an ongoing process that presents challenges and gives us opportunities to do a little creative problem solving and try to come up with something that we think will make things better next time," said Hayes. Although, they are still wrapping up the Primary Elections, Hayes says work has already begun for the Tuesday, Nov. 3 Presidential Election. Until then, she ask voters or potential voters to check out their website for information regarding a change of address, to confirm a voter registration and/or to obtain a mail-in ballot if necessary.