Requests to vote by mail down from 4 years ago in some North Texas counties
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Nancy Kee is eligible to vote by mail, but says she still likes casting her ballot in person.
"I feel like going to vote to me is something personal and I feel like I need to go and stand in line with the people," she said.
Kee isn't alone.
Requests to vote by mail in three North Texas counties during this year's midterm election show a sharp decline from the midterm election four years ago.
In Collin County, the number of people requesting a mail ballot is nearly half the number from the November 2018 election.
Collin County Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet said his office has sent 11,752 mail ballots so far for the November election.
Four years ago, they mailed about double the number of ballots, 22,126.
Sherbet said, "I think it's shocking that it's so much less."
When asked if this is the first time he has seen that, Sherbet said, "I would say yes. I would expect with the population increase that the mail ballots would have increased proportionately."
He said since November 2018, the county has seen the number of registered voters increase from about 581,000 to about 690,000 this year.
It's a similar story in Tarrant County.
Elections officials say they've mailed 22,383 mail ballots so far for this year's midterm election.
Four years ago, the county mailed nearly twice the number of ballots, 44,239.
The number of registered voters has increased from 1,134,484 in November 2018 to 1,257,835 as of Monday morning.
In Denton County, the elections office said as of Oct. 6, it sent 9,741 mail ballots, which is lower than the 16,194 ballots they sent four years ago.
As of Oct. 6, the county reports 601,686 registered voters, which is up from the 503,487 for the November 2018 election.
CBS 11 requested similar numbers from Dallas County, but never heard back.
If you want to vote by mail, you must submit your request by Oct. 28.
To vote by mail, you must be 65 and older, sick or disabled, or out of the county on election day.
A new controversial state law last year increased ID verification requirements for mail ballots.
The numbers come months after nearly 25,000 mail ballots were rejected during the March primary or a little over 12% of all ballots cast.
So why are fewer people requesting mail ballots now?
Sherbet said there could be a couple of reasons.
"There could be a chilling effect on just the absentee mail process," Sherbet said. "There've been changes made by state law with additional ID requirements. There could be voters who don't trust the postal service to get the ballot to us in time, so they decide to vote in person."
As for Nancy Kee, she recently moved from Dallas to Fort Worth and submitted her registration to vote.
"I want to vote, and tomorrow is the last day, so I want to get it in," she said.
