Countywide polling program backed by El Paso County commissioners
This program allows voters to cast their ballots, similar to early voting, at any voting center on Election Day.
'Vote centers have been popular among El Paso County voters since first used in the November 2020 Presidential Election,' said Lisa Wise, El Paso County elections administrator.
'El Paso County voters have come to rely on the convenience and choice that the Countywide Polling Place Program offers. In our most recent Presidential Election, 60% of voters who voted on Election Day chose to vote outside their precinct. That's an increase from 27% in the November 2020 Presidential Election,' Wise added.
The program also allows voters with disabilities to cast their ballots at a vote center that best suits their needs, the County said in ints news release.
The resolution further supports the use of electronic pollbooks, emphasizing that eliminating them would limit transparency and hinder the ability for voters, parties, and candidates to perform their own audits and reconciliation during elections, the County Elections Department said.
'The El Paso County Commissioners Court supports the continued use of countywide polling places and electronic pollbooks, recognizing their importance in making voting more accessible, secure, and efficient for all residents,' the resolution states.
'It would be devastating if the program were discontinued, creating mass confusion across the County. Our office has received positive feedback since the introduction of the program, and voters love the convenience of voting at a location of their choice, whether it's located near their place of employment, favorite shopping spot or their home,' Wise added.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump Says Only U.S. Votes by Mail. Here Are the Facts
A vote by mail ballot for the 2024 general election, sent to all registered voters in Los Angeles County, photographed October 28, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. Credit - Jay L. Clendenin—Getty Images President Donald Trump said he will "get rid of" mail-in ballots and voting machines before the 2026 midterm elections—and he's spreading misinformation on social media about the voting methods ahead of time. 'I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we're at it, Highly 'Inaccurate,' Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES,' Trump posted on Truth Social Monday morning, adding that he will sign an Executive Order eliminating them before the 2026 election. 'We are now the only Country in the World that uses Mail-In Voting. All others gave it up because of the MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD ENCOUNTERED.' Trump reiterated those claims during an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House on Monday, once again dubbing it 'corrupt' to reporters. Absentee voting and vote-by-mail allow people to send in their ballots via the postal service. Not all states allow it, and the laws vary in each state that does. Some states permit universal mail-in voting, for example, where anyone can vote by mail for any reason. Others allow it in specific circumstances. Lots of other countries vote by mail Despite what Trump claims, the United States is not the only country that utilizes mail-in ballots. In fact, multiple other countries do, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany. The International Institute for Democracy & Electoral Assistance (IDEA), an intergovernmental organization that works to protect democratic institutions, found that 34 countries allow postal voting—12 of which allow it for all voters, and 22 of which allow it for some voters. IDEA found that the COVID-19 pandemic created an incentive for these countries to upscale their mail-in ballot infrastructure for public health reasons, but most have kept these avenues open for citizens. Read more: Voting by Mail Dates Back to America's Earliest Years. Here's How It's Changed Over the Years Although Trump says he will use Executive Order powers to end the practice, the U.S. Constitution directs state legislatures to determine the "times, places and manner" of holding elections, which is part of the reason why only some states have vote-by-mail practices, and each state with vote-by-mail has different requirements. There's no evidence that mail voting is corrupt Trump's post continued by reviving well-worn rhetoric—that mail-in voting is used by his opponents, Democrats, for corrupt purposes, despite no evidence to support this claim. 'Democrats are virtually Unelectable without using this completely disproven Mail-In SCAM. ELECTIONS CAN NEVER BE HONEST WITH MAIL IN BALLOTS/VOTING, and everybody, IN PARTICULAR THE DEMOCRATS, KNOWS THIS,' Trump said. 'I, AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, WILL FIGHT LIKE HELL TO BRING HONESTY AND INTEGRITY BACK TO OUR ELECTIONS.' This is not the first time Trump has attacked mail-in ballots as a form of voting. During the 2020 election—which Trump lost to former President Joe Biden—Trump heavily attacked the use of mail-in ballots and suggested, without evidence, that mail voting would lead to 'massive fraud, and abuse,' and discredited physical ballot drop boxes. He also threatened to deploy law enforcement to polling places on Election Day. Trump's rhetoric made it seem that mail-in ballots were a Democratic plot and the election would be 'rigged' as a result. When he lost the 2020 election, Trump was quick to blame mail-in ballots, drop boxes, and voting machines, claiming that the system was corrupt. Though research shows that partisan rhetoric made voting by mail a more 'Democrat' thing to do in 2020 and 2022, experts—including the Brennan Center for Justice, the Bipartisan Policy Center, and the Center for Election Innovation and Research—have debunked Trump's claims and found that vote-by-mail methods only expand voting options for voters, and that the 2020 election was not marred by corruption. In the 2024 election, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission found that though mail-in ballots were not quite as popular as during the COVID-19 pandemic, they still accounted for nearly a third of ballots cast. And, in part motivated by Trump's claims of fraud, at least 19 states have passed new mail voting restrictions in place to make the practice more difficult since 2020, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Contact us at letters@
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Zelenskyy's White House re-do
Hello!Rebecca Morin Erin is forecast to steer clearof the mainland United States. I'm thinking of all those who are affected in the Caribbean, such as those in Puerto Rico. Zelenskyy back at the White House Now, it's Ukraine's turn. President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon is meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a potential peace deal with Russia, just days after Trump held an hourslong meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Before the Washington meetings, Trump railed at critics of his recent summit with Putin, where he shifted his position on a Ukraine ceasefire to align with that of the Russian president. He also put the onus on Zelenskyy to end Russia's assault on his country and ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine. Follow the latest updates from Trump's meeting with Zelenskyy. Don't forget about Europe: Trump is also set to meet with European leaders, who are rallying behind Zelenskyy and hope to move Trump away from Putin's conditions for a peace deal. European leaders also participated Sunday in an emergency virtual meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, the group of countries that have offered to provide security guarantees to Ukraine after the war. See which European leaders will meet with Trump. Trump-Putin's meeting: The red carpets were rolled out. The two leaders shook hands. A roughly three-hour long meeting was had. And still, no peace deal. Trump and Putin held a roughly three hour long summit in Alaska, where the two did not come to an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. Key takeaways from the Trump-Putin summit. Documents left behind: Watch where you print. Government documents with details about meeting schedules and seating charts, as well as an extravagant menu and reminder to pronounce Putin's name "POO-tihn," were accidentally left in a hotel printer in Alaska amid Trump's meeting with the Russian leader. The documents with State Department markings, reported by NPR, were discovered in the printer in an Anchorage hotel around 9 a.m., hours before Trump's summit with Putin at a nearby military base. See what the documents said. A politics pit stop No more mail-in voting? Trump on Monday said he would sign an executive order to abolish mail-in voting, a move he said Putin supported. Mailing ballots is a popular option for voters to avoid waiting in line at polling places on Election Day. Election-security officials say voting has never been more secure and that the president has no role overseeing elections. But Trump has long railed against mail-in voting as vulnerable to fraud – despite election experts, including those in his first administration, who said mail-in voting is secure. What to know about Trump's plan. Texas standoff over Texas, we're heading home. Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives returned to Austin Monday morning after leaving the state two weeks ago in protest of a Republican plan to re-draw congressional maps to help the party gain seats in 2026. The protest temporarily blocked House Republicans from having a quorum to move the redistricting plan forward and drew national attention to Trump's effort to avoid losing the Republican majority in Congress next year. Republicans adjourned its first special session in the state House on Thursday. Democrats refused to return to the state until after that first special session. California's plans to redraw its state congressional maps also prompted Texas Democrats' return. Got a burning question, or comment, for On Politics?You can submit them here or send me an email atrdmorin@
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Angry Trump Accidentally Blurts Out Unnerving New Plot to Rig Midterms
President Donald Trump raged at Democrats Monday for supposedly cheating in elections in a long and unhinged Truth Social rant—and buried in his tirade is a clear indication of how he hopes to corrupt the 2026 midterm elections at a time when his agenda is nose-diving in polls. In his screed, Trump rehashed his familiar lies about how mail balloting is riddled with fraud, and promised to lead a new 'movement' to abolish it. But then he added this: WE WILL BEGIN THIS EFFORT, WHICH WILL BE STRONGLY OPPOSED BY THE DEMOCRATS BECAUSE THEY CHEAT AT LEVELS NEVER SEEN BEFORE, by signing an EXECUTIVE ORDER to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections. Remember, the States are merely an 'agent' for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes. Trump already unveiled a similar executive order in March designed to change election rules. It would have barred states from accepting ballots mailed on time but that arrive after Election Day and forced state officials to require documented proof of citizenship for everyone who registers to vote in federal elections. Such changes would have disenfranchised large numbers of voters. Two federal judges blocked it this spring after a coalition of states sued, the plaintiffs successfully arguing that it usurped their authority to set election rules. The administration is appealing. Trump appears prepared to have a second run at such an executive order. But what's critical about Monday's post is he connected this scheme directly to the midterms, inadvertently revealing the real aim behind it. Trump's new rant says he's going to 'lead a movement to get rid of' mail balloting, then later says this 'movement' will begin with his new executive order—a strong indication he will try to ban vote-by-mail by executive order. Voting rights advocates have long expected him to attempt something like this, perhaps by arguing that vote-by-mail is a threat to national security. That's because Trump's argument for his previous executive order failed in the courts after judges affirmed that the Constitution authorizes states to set the 'time, place and manner' of elections. Now Trump might try something new. 'It sounds like he will try to ban all mail-in balloting through executive order, and he's going to have to find some other rationale for such a sweeping presidential action,' said Pooja Chaudhuri, a lawyer at Democracy Defenders Fund, which represented other clients challenging the March executive order. For instance, Trump might argue that 'mail-in ballots are so fraudulent that they undermine the institutions of this country,' Chaudhuri continued, and that 'the president must get involved. This would represent an enormous abuse of power.' There is overwhelming evidence that any fraud in mail balloting is limited to nonexistent. Indeed, it's now beyond obvious that the pretext is the thing to watch. Trump is manufacturing a fake justification for nixing vote-by-mail because he believes (probably wrongly, but never mind that) doing so will help Republicans in the midterms. That he openly linked his announcement to the 2026 elections shows he isn't even bothering to hide the scam any longer. 'If they are going to try to stand for election integrity, it hurts them to point out that this is directly related to the 2026 elections,' said Greta Bedekovics, associate director of democracy at the Center for American Progress. 'It exposes that this is not about election integrity and national security, it's about election rigging.' It's no accident that this comes even as Trump is expanding the use of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., and other cities, based—again—on a manufactured pretext, this time about crime. At bottom, Trump's rant clearly signals his intent to use presidential power in every conceivable way he can to swing the midterm elections against Democrats. This could include ramped-up military maneuvers in Democratic strongholds or in swing areas—whether to intimate voters or to fabricate a crisis atmosphere meant to help Republicans—as well as whatever limits on voting he can impose, all justified with pretexts that he invents out of nothing. We all need to be ready for this. Fortuitously, Trump has told us himself exactly what he intends to do.
