The 2024 general election is a week away, but Dallas County voters can still cast their ballots ahead of time with the second week of in-person early voting that runs through Friday.
The 71 voting centers will be open from 7 a.m to 7 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday and from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Friday.
Residents can vote at any one of the centers regardless of their precinct and can find the locations here. Voters must present one of seven forms of identification, such as a driver’s license, military ID, passport or one of the others listed on the elections website.
Elections Administrator Heider Garcia said the county expanded the number of early voting centers by 10% this year to give the public more opportunities to vote and help cut down on wait times.
Even with a rocky start to early voting in Dallas County, residents have so far shown up in droves to cast their ballots ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.
Dallas County saw 353,593 voters cast their ballots during the first seven days of early voting that began on Oct. 21, according to elections office records.
That is slightly above early turnout for the 2020 general election when 343,632 showed up in the first seven days of early voting, which began that year on a Tuesday.
But the first day this year kicked off with some issues. Poll workers on Oct. 21 experienced glitches with the electronic pollbook software used to check in voters, which resulted in long wait times and some being issued ballots for precincts where they do not live.
Although the problem was mitigated through a configuration update with the manufacturer that same day, Garcia said the problems persisted to a lesser extent throughout the rest of the week.
In response to the problems, the Dallas County Commissioners Court met on Friday to extend voting center closure times by two hours for the final three days of early voting.
Garcia said election officials were working with locations to enforce the extended hours and poll workers were committed to making sure residents get their opportunity to vote.
“I think the poll workers have done fabulous things,” Garcia said in an interview on Friday. “And if there’s one thing that drives them, it isn’t the pay they get for this. It’s their desire to serve their community and get people to vote.”