New voter registration software is coming for the Grimes County elections administrator.
“Going to the free system which is offered by the state…we have already gotten a timeline from the state. We are terminating our contract with Vo-Tech, and will be done with them by September 30th,” said County Elections Administrator Lucy Ybarra during the Wednesday, August 5th meeting of Commissioner’s Court.
The old system costs the county nearly $12,000 a year.
And rest assured, while the new software is changed, there will be no changes to how you vote on election day. Ybarra just says it will make things somewhat less stressful for their group.
“it will make it easier for us to process, so we do not have to use two programs in order to get voter registration done, upload early voting history and things like that. Right now, we have to upload and update two different programs to satisfy both contracts and state requirements. Once we switch, we will not have to do that. It saves us both money, and time, in order for us to do this…but, for November, it will not touch it, it will not hurt it, if anything, it will make it a little simpler for us to do things,” said Ybarra.
Early voting for the November election has been pushed up as well, by Governors’s orders, and will begin on October 13th.
If you have any questions for the elections office, contact them at 936-873-4422.