Where, when and how to vote in Kaufman County

Early voting: Oct. 19 – Oct. 30

Kaufman County votes at vote centers: any registered Kaufman County voter can vote at any of the county's six early-voting sites. They're open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, through Friday, Oct. 23; 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24; noon to 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25; and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, through Friday, Oct. 30.

The main early-voting site is the Kaufman County Library, 3790 S. Houston St., Kaufman. The others are the Forney, Terrell and Kemp sub-courthouses, the Crandall/Combine Community Center and Keith Bell Opportunity Central in Forney. The Kemp Sub Courthouse is for early voting only; on Election Day, the vote center in Kemp is First Baptist Church, Kemp.

Election Day: Tuesday, Nov. 3

On Election Day you can vote at any of the county's 23 vote centers, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. If you're in line by 7 p.m., you can vote. Enter your address in the guide above to find the vote centers nearest you.

Your address decides which races are on your ballot, wherever you vote. See every race in the county's sample ballot.

Combine, Dallas, Mabank, Mesquite, Poetry and Seagoville each lie partly in Kaufman County and partly in a neighboring county. Your county, not your city, runs your election: if your home is outside Kaufman County, find your county's elections office on the Texas Secretary of State's list.

Voting by mail

Texas lets you vote by mail only if one of these applies:

• You're 65 or older on Election Day
• You're sick or disabled
• You'll be outside Kaufman County on Election Day and throughout early voting
• You expect to give birth within three weeks before or after Election Day
• You're in jail but otherwise eligible to vote
• You're certified in the Texas attorney general's Address Confidentiality Program and registered in person
• You're under a civil commitment order to live in a Texas Civil Commitment Office facility

Your application must reach the Elections Department by the close of business, 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23. Mail it to Kaufman County Elections Department, P.O. Box 1347, Kaufman, TX 75142. If you fax or email it, mail the original too: it must arrive within four business days.

Mail your voted ballot so it's postmarked by 7 p.m. on Election Day and arrives by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4; a ballot with no postmark must arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day. Or hand-deliver it yourself, with an accepted photo ID (or, if you can't reasonably get one, a supporting document and a signed Reasonable Impediment Declaration), to the Elections Department at 3003 S. Washington St. in Kaufman on Election Day only, until 7 p.m. You must deliver your own ballot. Vote centers do not accept mail ballots, and Texas law doesn't allow drop boxes.

If there's a problem with your mail ballot, such as a missing or mismatched ID number, the county will tell you how to fix it. You have until Monday, Nov. 9. Track your mail ballot in the Texas Secretary of State's ballot tracker.

What to bring

Bring one of these photo IDs. If you're 18 to 69, it can be expired for up to four years; if you're 70 or older, it can be expired for any length of time.

• Texas driver's license
• Texas Election Identification Certificate
• Texas personal ID card
• Texas handgun license
• U.S. military ID card with your photo
• U.S. citizenship certificate with your photo
• U.S. passport (book or card)

No photo ID? If you have a reasonable impediment to getting one, you can show a supporting document, such as your voter registration certificate, a utility bill, bank statement, government check or paycheck, and sign a Reasonable Impediment Declaration at the vote center. Otherwise you can vote a provisional ballot; it counts only if you then show an accepted ID to the county voter registrar within six days, by Monday, Nov. 9.

You can't use a phone or other device in the room where you vote, so print your sample ballot or write down your choices if you want them with you.

Getting there

No fixed-route bus stops serve Kaufman County's vote centers, so the guide lists none. The directions links open your maps app.

STAR Transit, which runs on-demand service in Kaufman County, says rides to and from the polls are free for registered voters on weekdays during early voting, Oct. 19–30; on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Balch Springs, Mesquite and Terrell; and on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, subject to availability. Tell the driver or reservationist you're riding to vote, or use promo code Vote1126 in the STARNow app. To book, call 877-631-5278, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, at least 30 minutes ahead. The details are in STAR Transit's announcement.

Accessibility

Every polling place is accessible and offers curbside voting: if you can't go inside without help or risk to your health, park at the white curbside voting cone and call the number posted, and an election worker will help you at your car. The voting machines have an audio ballot and a braille keypad, and the text can be magnified or shown in high-contrast black and white. You can bring someone to help you vote, as long as it isn't your employer, an agent of your employer, or an officer or agent of your union; election workers can help too.

More on voting with a disability from the Elections Department.

About this guide

Sites, hours and the vote centers' locations come from the Kaufman County Elections Department and the county's GIS; districts from the county's ballot and GIS; map geography from the U.S. Census Bureau. The Dallas Standard is not affiliated with the Elections Department. Confirm details at kaufmancounty.net/elections.