{"id":3145,"date":"2025-10-20T16:31:40","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T20:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/sycamore-stacks\/?p=3145"},"modified":"2025-10-20T16:35:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T20:35:45","slug":"vote-early-and-avoid-the-crowds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/sycamore-stacks\/2025\/10\/20\/vote-early-and-avoid-the-crowds\/","title":{"rendered":"Vote Early and Avoid the Crowds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
The Gateway Center on the campus of the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Early voting in person starts today in Texas and continues through October 31, four days before Election Day. During this early voting period, you may vote at any venue in the county where you are registered. (On Election Day you can only vote in the venue assigned to your precinct.) For UNT students, faculty, and staff who are registered to vote in Denton County, the UNT Gateway Center<\/a> offers the convenience of being able to vote without leaving campus. For a schedule and a list of other places to vote in Denton, see the Early Voting Locations, Dates, and Times<\/a> page on the Denton County Elections website. A Map of Early Voting Locations<\/a> is also available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your Voter Rights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

UNT employees are entitled to take paid time off to vote during the work day:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“An employee must be provided sufficient time off with pay during the workday to vote
in each national, state, or local election. The employee should notify the supervisor of
the employee\u2019s intent to use work time to vote. There is no need to record the time
absent to vote; this time is reported as time worked.”<\/p>\nUNT Human Resources Policy IV. A. 17. Voting<\/em><\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Your Voter Profile<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Use the Denton Voter Lookup<\/a> to make sure you are registered to vote in Denton County and to see other information, such as your precinct number, the issues and candidates you will be voting on, and even a sample ballot that shows exactly what your ballot will look like. If you’re not registered in Denton County, try the Texas Voter Lookup<\/a> to find similar information for other Texas counties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are registered in another Texas county you cannot vote in Denton County, but you can request a mail-in ballot<\/a> from your home county election administration if you are not going to be in the area during the voting period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Candidates and Issues<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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Be sure you educate yourself with the issues and candidates before you enter the polling booth. This election includes a long list of proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution. The brief descriptions of these amendments on the ballot are often so vague or ambiguous that you can end up voting for something you are opposed to if you don’t prepare yourself ahead of time. The League of Women Voters has created a Texas Constitutional Amendments Voters Guide<\/a> that provides a simple explanation of what each amendment does, along with the reasons why you might want to vote for or against it. See the Denton League of Women Voters Guide<\/a> for more information about this and other Texas elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t Forget Your ID<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You don’t need your voter registration card to vote, but you do need either a Texas driver license or any of six other acceptable forms of photo ID. See the Identification Requirements for Voting<\/a> at VoteTexas.gov for a full explanation of what forms of ID are acceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s Not Allowed<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

There are restrictions on bringing posters and flyers within a certain distance of the polling place; on using cell phones, cameras, and other devices within the polling place; and on wearing clothing that promotes a particular party, candidate, or issue. For a full explanation of what is not allowed in the polling place, see What’s allowed at the polling place?<\/a>\u00a0on the VoteTexas website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changes Coming to Early Voting<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On June 27, 2025, Governor Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 2753<\/a>, which will change the schedule for early voting in Texas. Currently early voting begins 17 days before Election Day, includes only one weekend, and ends four days before election day. The new schedule will begin 12 days before Election Day, include two weekends, and run continuously to Election Day with no break. It will also expand voting hours on Sunday from the current six hours a day to nine hours a day. The bill will also require any location used as an early-voting venue be available also on Election Day. For a more thorough summary of the bill’s provisions, see Election Advisory No. 2025-10 <\/a>on the Texas Secretary of State webpage. For a discussion of the pros and cons of this new schedule, see “Texas is about to expand early voting. Here\u2019s what that means for voters and counties.<\/a>” on the Votebeat Texas<\/a> website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would You Like to Know More?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You can find more information about voting at the following websites:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NorthVOTExas<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

VoteDenton.gov<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

VoteTexas.gov<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNT Libraries: Voting and Civic Engagement Guide<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voting FAQs (Division of Student Affairs)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article by Bobby Griffith.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source of image of UNT Gateway Center: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Early voting in person starts today in Texas and continues through October 31, four days before Election Day. During this early voting period, you may vote at any venue in the county where you are registered. (On Election Day you can only vote in the venue assigned to your precinct.) For UNT students, faculty, and… Read more »<\/a>","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9,10,11],"tags":[337,22,338,339,336],"class_list":["post-3145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-get-help","category-keeping-tabs","category-local-doings","category-make-a-difference","tag-denton-county","tag-early-voting","tag-elections","tag-unt-gateway-center","tag-voting"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/sycamore-stacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/sycamore-stacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/sycamore-stacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/sycamore-stacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/sycamore-stacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3145"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/sycamore-stacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3172,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/sycamore-stacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3145\/revisions\/3172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/sycamore-stacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/sycamore-stacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.unt.edu\/sycamore-stacks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}