For some Richland Students, it might be tough to get all or some of the vital information needed before election day Nov. 5. Barbara Larkin, the director of voter education and special projects among other roles for the League of Women Voters Dallas, shared the importance of early voting and some online resources before voting.
One tip Larkin wanted to give students was to utilize websites before voting. “Usually there’s a whole variety of websites that populate with all that information about 30 to 40 days before an election,” Larkin said. “It’s live now with all the data, but before Vote411.org goes live, we always tell people to go to dallascountyvotes.org, which is a Dallas County Elections website,” she added.
The Dallas County elections website lets you see a sample ballot that will have everything you will see on election day. Another website is Vote411.org, a website by the League of Women Voters. “I think that’s the most important place they can go,” said Larkin. Vote411.org allows you to find out what’s on your ballot based on your address, check your voter registration and more.
For students who may want to find out about issues they may care about when choosing a candidate, Larkin suggests also checking out Ballotpedia.com or the actual websites at the U.S. Congress.
Early voting began Oct. 21 and runs until Nov. 1. There are two reasons Larkin thinks people should vote early. “The main reason to early vote, well, one is that the lines are very short, typically during early voting,” she said. The other reason is if something goes wrong with your voter file, someone will have time to be able to contact you. Although for the majority of voters, there should be no issues. “For most people, nothing goes wrong. It’s probably, one or two people out of 100,” Larkin said.
One thing people might not know is that you need to vote in the county you’re registered in. “If you are in Richland and you are registered to vote in Ellis County, you have to go back to Ellis County to vote,” said Larkin. Your county won’t affect what’s on your ballot.
While some people might want to use notes on their phones to write down their choices, phones are not allowed in polling locations for privacy reasons of other voters. Larkin suggested bringing a written or printed piece of paper to help voters keep track of their choices. “It’s important to know that you can’t, even though you can start by writing it in your phone, then you need to write it on a piece of paper,” Larkin said.
