For the first time in Texas, inmates now have a polling place of their own at Harris County Jail

In many ways, Texas’ largest detention facility looked like any other polling place, with signs outside urging social distancing and poll workers directing voters toward voting machines in the lobby. But behind locked doors at the Harris County Jail, 96 inmates also cast their ballots in Tuesday’s elections, helping decide the fate of constitutional amendments and school board races from the state’s first-ever polling site located at a county-run detention center. Margaret King, an election judge who had worked the polls at churches and community centers in previous elections, said she was surprised when county election officials asked her if she would mind staffing the new jail site. “I thought it was a joke at first,” King said. For years, eligible voters who land in the Harris County Jail and other facilities across Texas have been allowed to mail in their ballots, though few exercise the option, in many cases lacking information about how to vote absentee — or even the knowledge they are eligible. And those who are detained after the deadline to request a mail-in ballot, which falls 11 days before Election Day, are unable to vote by mail. The jail polling site instantly expanded voting access for the thousands of Harris County inmates awaiting trial or serving misdemeanor sentences, all of whom are eligible to vote unless previously convicted of a felony. Voting rights activists had pushed for the change in recent years, even as Sheriff Ed Gonzalez opened the jail to an advocacy group that distributed voter registration forms and mail ballot applications to detainees ahead of the 2018 and 2020 elections. Gonzalez said he had pushed to create the jail site even as the process was slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, various storms and a number of “bureaucratic obstacles.” “Many individuals come here for a number of different reasons,” he said. “We have veterans here, we have individuals that have degrees, we have individuals that unfortunately have been in the throes of addiction and mental illness and other things. But it doesn’t remove the right to vote.” Harris County officials began seriously weighing the idea of creating a jail voting site in late 2019, around the same time Illinois lawmakers authorized a voting site at the similarly sized Cook County Jail. But the proposal stalled under former County Clerk Diane Trautman, who said it faced too many hurdles. One concern: State law requires voters to present one of several forms of identification at the polls, yet jail officials confiscate inmates’ IDs when they are booked. Trautman had also questioned how the county would comply with the requirement that all voters be allowed to access the polling site, including noninmates. Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said officials have ensured inmates would have the form of ID needed to cast their ballot. And they found that state law does not require voters to access every machine at a polling site, allowing some to be located in a secure location inside the jail and others to be publicly accessible in the jail lobby. The jail voting site was the latest measure pioneered by election officials in Harris County, where voters cast ballots from their vehicles and overnight during the 2020 election as part of the county’s efforts to drive turnout and limit voter contact amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The innovations were challenged in court and later banned by Republicans in the state Legislature, though Harris County officials have continued to offer drive-thru and 24-hour voting for the November election, with about a month left before the new voting laws take effect. The new polling site came together through a joint effort by the offices of Menefee, Gonzalez and Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria, who helped implement the 2020 voting innovations while working in the county clerk’s office before she was tapped for the newly created administrator role. “If you are a voter, you deserve the same level of service, and that is jumping through every hoop we can to make sure that you get to the polls and get to vote your way in a safe, accessible manner,” Longoria said.” That’s what we’re providing, whether it be these voting services at a (jail), whether it be drive-thru voting, expanded hours, whatever it may be.” Menefee said he and other county officials are confident there’s nothing in Texas’ election code that outlaws the jail voting site. As of Monday, 7,990 of the 9,282 inmates at the Harris County Jail were still awaiting trial, meaning they were eligible to vote unless convicted of a prior felony offense. A chunk of the remaining population had been convicted of a misdemeanor and was also eligible. Ivylee Terrill, 23, of Spring, was booked into the jail Oct. 29 for an aggravated assault. A restaurant manager in the free world, she’d been placed in an isolation cell for much of the time since her arrest, meaning she was let out for just an hour a day. Terrill said she was feeling low, alone and sad, when three election workers approached her in the days before the election with a question: Did she want to vote? “I’ve never been taken out of a quarantine tank and asked if I wanted to vote,” Terrill said. She leaped at the chance. Terrill had voted in the two most recent presidential elections and felt the gravity of the moment then. Tuesday served as a reminder of that experience. “It was a great feeling,” she said. “I knew that I was doing something for the better of me … (and) when I actually got there they told me that I’m one of the first women to have been able to vote (in person at the jail). And when they told me that, I just thought, ‘Well, I’m making history.’” Jail staff had spent several months working with county election officials to prepare for the election, make sure voters were registered or had the information they needed, and to identify potential inmates who were actually eligible to vote and to ask them if they wanted to cast ballots, said Maj. Phillip Bosquez, one of the supervisors of the 701 N. San Jacinto building — one of three buildings that make up the county’s sprawling lockup. Though just 96 inmates used the new polling site Tuesday, Bosquez said several hundred others had also voted by mail, a massive uptick from previous elections. Troy Jones, 30, had arrived at the jail Oct. 25 on an assault charge. A self-described “geek when it comes to law,” and a social media manager, Jones first thought the invitation to vote was a bad joke. “I’ve been a part of many jokes, but this is not funny,” he recalled thinking. Jones’ father spent a lengthy stint in prison and isn’t eligible to vote. So the chance to cast a ballot felt particularly special, he said. “He started tearing up,” said Bryce Randall, the election official who had spoken with Jones. “I think he felt like he was seen.” Early Tuesday, jail staff woke Jones up and brought him to a secure area where poll workers had set up a bank of polling machines. An election judge checked his voter registration and showed him a sample ballot. And then he voted. jasper.scherer@chron.com St.John.Smith@chron.com - Military reforms inspired by Texan Vanessa Guillén poised to pass U.S. Senate - Faced with similar foster care woes, Oklahoma made fixes while Texas keeps ‘failing children’ - Unfair Burden: Unchecked - Thumbs: Liz Cheney breaks Ted Cruz with one line

For the first time in Texas, inmates now have a polling place of their own at Harris County Jail

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