Voters can expect to see some changes to local elections next year as the Bell County elections department looks to implement a variety of changes.
During Monday’s Commissioners Court workshop, interim elections administrator Shay Luedeke briefed officials on changes he has started to make since taking over the department in November. Many of the changes have focused around modernizing and improving what the department currently does.
Luedeke, who also serves as the county’s Tax Assessor-Collector, took over the interim position following the departure of Matthew Dutton, the previous elections administrator.
In improving the department, Luedeke has focused on getting the department better prepared to deal with the county’s increasing population in recent years.
“With 217,000 registered voters, we are only getting more and more people wanting to vote,” Luedeke said.
One big change for voters in the county, Luedeke said, are plans to add a seventh and possibly an eighth early voting location.
Currently the county has six early voting locations: two in Killeen, one in Temple, one in Salado, one in Belton and one in Harker Heights. The new location Luedeke hopes to open would be at the Killeen Senior Center at Lions Club Park, 1700 E. Stan Schlueter Loop in Killeen.
Luedeke said he hopes this new location will help cut down on lines across the county, but also hopes to add an additional site in Temple if he can find a space to host it.
Early voting sites in the county need to meet several requirements, including being Americans with Disabilities Act accessible, have enough space and be accessible during early voting. Early voting locations are normally open for the two weeks prior to an election, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. the first week and from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. the second week.
This time requirement has previously been one of the main blockages to the department adding more locations, with few facilities able to accommodate them while being in a good location.
Despite the need, officials admitted adding new voting centers would mean increased cost to the county for hiring the needed staff and securing the space.
Bell County Judge David Blackburn said the county will need to look at how expensive it would be to add one or multiple additional voting centers.
“I don’t disagree that we need an additional voting center, it’s pretty bad,” Blackburn said. “And I don’t disagree to targeting where the lines are the longest and where the population centers are.”
Luedeke also has started to work with the county’s technology department to modernize its election map.
The department plans on using existing mapping software used by others in the county to create a precinct map of the county. The software would allow the county to add new roads more easily than they can currently.
“We are currently using a map book from 2009 with hand-drawn precinct line,” Luedeke said. “And every time they have new roads, they hand draw the new road in this map book. So that is why we want mapping software.”
Another piece of software the county plans on using for upcoming elections is one developed during the 2020 election.
The software aims at allowing voters to see where waits at polling places are the shortest during early voting and Election Day. Adam Ward, technology services director, said the software had been finished last year but it was too close to the general election to put out something that was still in the beta testing phase.
Training for election judges, who would have to manually input wait times, was one of the reasons for the county not using the software.
Luedeke said he hopes to put the software into use now so the county can prepare for more intense elections.
“We are going to use it this primary, at lease put it to some practical use,” Luedeke said. “I think (the election) will be low enough volume that we can do that … and use it several times before the next general election.”
Some smaller changes being worked on by Luedeke include starting a Facebook page for the department to help with transparency and creating an official employee handbook specific to the department.
