Shortened Early Voting Hours Schedule In East Austin Upsets Residents [UPDATE]

EAST AUSTIN, TX -- Following community complaints about early voting sites in East Austin not being open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. -- as they are elsewhere in the city -- elections officials will adhere to an across-the-board scheduling at all polling places in the future, elections officials said.

Director of Elections Michael Winn told Patch Wednesday afternoon all polling places will adhere to uniform hours beginning May 24, the date of the primary runoffs. He said he had just received confirmation for that plan from the city clerk’s office.

Community activists in East Austin had complained about voting places in East Austin not being open until 10 a.m. and noon. A third polling place in southeast Austin didn’t open its doors until 10 a.m.

At the root of community advocates’ complaints were demographics of those areas -- abundant with a working-class segment unable to avail themselves of voting first thing in the morning on their way to work as their counterparts elsewhere. Many of those residents weren’t able to vote after work either, given the shortened hours of the polling places in their neighborhoods.

Asked if the hours for the current early voting period ending Feb. 26 would immediately be altered to a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. schedule in East Austin, Winn said he would have to receive official word before the schedule would be modified accordingly.

“Until I get notification from my superiors, those hours will remain as posted,” he said.

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From earlier:

EAST AUSTIN, TX -- The warm aura of accomplishment normally achieved with casting a ballot was supplanted Tuesday by a cold reality on the first day of early voting: Unlike in other parts of the city, voting places in East Austin weren’t open at 7 a.m., and were closed earlier than in other areas of town.

“Based on everything that’s happened in East Austin in the past, it should one of the geographical areas of highest concern,” resident Kathy Vale Castillo told Patch in a telephone interview. “If there’s any geographical area needs to have early hours for voting, it’s East Austin.”

Instead, voting at two of the three East Austin voting sites didn’t open until 10 a.m. and noon -- hours after voters in other parts of the city were able to cast their ballots first thing in morning at 7 a.m.

Vale Castillo noted sites elsewhere in the city easily accommodated voters casting ballots before going to work. But not in East Austin.

“¡Que desgracia!” Vale Castillo, an advocate for the Latino community, interjected in Spanish -- what a disgrace.

According to the Travis County clerk’s office, early voting hours at the Carver Branch Library at 1161 Angelina St. are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. At Parque Zaragoza, located at 2608 Gonzales St., hours are from noon to 7 p.m. Monday-Thursday; noon to 6 p.m. on Friday; and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Vale Castillo’s outrage was exacerbated in considering the abundant Latino and African American working class in East Austin, including a concentration of constructions workers living in neighborhood enclaves that were once solidly a working-class hub before gentrification began to alter the demographics.

Vale Castillo noted early voters in the southeast part of the city -- another sector with a higher concentration of low-income residents -- didn’t fare much better. At the Dan Ruiz Public Library at 1600 Grove Boulevard, voting hours were 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Monday-Thursday; 10 am. to 6 p.m. on Friday; and 10 a.m. to 5 p;m. on Saturday.

Other community advocates took to social media to voice their displeasure at the truncated hours for voting in East Austin: “Have not voted yet because Parque Zaragoza early voting was closed when I went by at 10:30 a.m.,” wrote Jose Valera on his Facebook page. “Regardless of how Travis County staffs voting locations, it sends the wrong message when areas of town with the word “East” in them are always the ones that have limited voting hours.”

Lifelong East Austin resident Lonnie Limon also aired his displeasure on Facebook, alerting his friends of the limited voting hours in East Austin while voicing his outrage.

“In East Austin, an area that has historically been home to working-class, Hispanic and African American families, we are not being given the same opportunity to vote starting at 7 a.m. during the primaries for early voting,” Limon wrote.

“While in every other part of Austin, there is at least one voting location opening from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” Limon added. “Why is this important? First, our working class voters leave to work early and may not come back to East Austin until 6 p.m. if they don’t get caught in our city’s gridlock traffic.”

That leaves many East Austin voters potentially just one hour to vote each weekday during early voting, Limon noted.

He and Vale Castillo attributed the shortened hours for a lack of budgeting to operate the East Austin voting sites for the 12-hour period granted elsewhere.

While conceding budget constraints may have played a role in shortened hours in the past, Director of Elections Michael Winn said the altered hours in East Austin are attributable to the availability of sites to which their hours of operation must be deferred.

He noted that hours and locations of each voting site are publicized well in advance, suggesting voters shouldn’t have been surprised to learn of the delayed hours on the first day of early voting.

Still, he agreed consistency across the board -- at each and every voting site throughout the city -- would be ideal: “Moving forward, we recognize the fact that we may need to provide consistent hours as we do throughout the county,” he conceded, during a phone interview with Patch.

Winn said city officials with whom he’s spoken agreed with the need for the same hours at all sectors of the city for the sake of consistency. He added city officials approved the measure for across-the-board hours after this election cycle, but didn’t specify when this formal action might have been taken.

Still, he was happy his own voice on the matter was heard, he said: “Sometimes, you have to win a small battle to win the war.”

Winn agreed that sometimes the demographics of a city sector -- rather than the locations able to host voting activity -- should figure prominently in deciding not to feature shortened hours. But he noted the short hours of East Austin this election cycle are no aberration.

“We’ve been working some of these locations for several years, and customers know some of these sites open up a little later because of the many facilities -- libraries, recreation centers, retirement homes,” Winn said. “Their hours vary.”

Winn added that voters are able to vote in any part of the city, not just where they live as part of an “open centers” style of voting: “You can vote anywhere, anyplace, anytime,” he said. “Regarldess of where you live.”

Winn suggested voters with transportation issues getting to their neighborhood sites might want to contact their respective political parties to see if officials there might arrange for chartered vans to transport them to other voting locations.

“If people have serious heartburn at those two [East Austin] locations, they can take buses to get them to early voting. We’re here to help.”

Early voting began Feb. 16 and runs until Feb. 26. On both Democratic and Republican ballot forms, residents will vote on races on the national, state and local levels -- from primary votes for President of the United States, to state legislators, judges, district attorney and sheriff.