2016 Early Voting – 1st Week Totals

As we enter the second week of Early Voting for this year’s General Election, here are the numbers. I am excited about these numbers as it truly shows how serious we are taking this election here in Milam County even without any locally contested races.

First Week Totals

Location – Voters (2012 Voters)

County Clerk’s Office – 1478 (1324)

Rockdale Juvenile Justice Center – 1127 (843)

Buckholts Community Center – 149 (107)

Thorndale VFW – 451 (252)

Ballot by Mail – 456 (254)

Limited - 15 (10)

Military – 18 (14)

Total – 3694 (2795)

As of right now, our voting numbers at staying around the 30% mark higher than in 2012.

After only the 1^st week of this year’s Early Voting, nearly 80% of those that voted early in 2012 have already voted.

Keep up the great work.

Early Voting continues in Milam County through Friday, November 4^th.

Thanks Again,

Bill

2016 Milam County Ballot

Someone emailed me to ask where they could find a sample ballot for the General Election.

I know it was printed in the newspapers and I believe it is online on the www.milamcounty.net site; however, I figured I would put it on this blog as well.

This is the ballot for Precinct 1 voters. The state and federal ballot is the same; however, each precinct has some precinct specific races and none of the local races are contested. If you’d like to see the list of Republicans running for local, state, and federal offices you can go to www.milamgop.org and check there.

Here are the two sheets that comprise the ballots. If you can't read on them you should be able to click on them to enlarge them.

If you have any questions or concerns you can always email us at milamgop@yahoo.com

Thanks,

Bill

2016 Early Voting - Day Three

As we enter Day 4 of Early Voting for this year’s General Election, here are the numbers. Once again they are impressive here in Milam County as they are throughout the state and country.

For October 26, 2016

Location – Voters (2012 Voters)

County Clerk’s Office – 257 (180)

Rockdale Juvenile Justice Center – 191 (154)

Buckholts Community Center – 37 (16)

Thorndale VFW – 68 (49)

Ballot by Mail – 41 (10)

Military – 0 (0)

Total – 594 (409)

Two Day Totals

Location – Voters (2012 Voters)

County Clerk’s Office – 763 (663)

Rockdale Juvenile Justice Center – 706 (512)

Buckholts Community Center – 89 (53)

Thorndale VFW – 243 (156)

Ballot by Mail – 410 (232)

Limited - 2 (0)

Military – 14 (12)

Total – 2227 (1628)

Those number are exceptional and show just how motivated Milam Country is this year to get out and vote in this HUGE Election.

As of right now, our voting numbers at nearly 37% higher than in 2012.

After only 3 days of this years Early Voting, 47 % of those that voted early in 2012 have already voted.

Keep up the great work and remember, if you can't make it during the week then there will be Early Voting this Saturday, October 29th, from 7 am to 7 pm at the County Clerk's Office in Cameron.

Thanks Again,

Bill

Early Voting - Day Two

Well the second day of early voting has concluded and the number of voters is really setting some new high water marks for the entire country and things are no different right here in Milam County.

Here are some of the stats here in Milam County after two days of Early Voting.

For October 25, 2016

Location – Voters (2012 Voters)

County Clerk’s Office – 245 (223)

Rockdale Juvenile Justice Center – 243 (177)

Buckholts Community Center – 36 (21)

Thorndale VFW – 91 (41)

Ballot by Mail – 4 (17)

Military – 0 (2)

Total – 621 (481)

Two Day Totals

Location – Voters (2012 Voters)

County Clerk’s Office – 506 (483)

Rockdale Juvenile Justice Center – 515 (358)

Buckholts Community Center – 52 (37)

Thorndale VFW – 175 (107)

Ballot by Mail – 369 (222)

Military – 14 (12)

Total – 1633 (1219)

As you can see we are on a tremendous pace to break some Early Voting Records here in Milam County, even without any contested races in the local elections. Currently, Early voting is alread7 33% more than in 2012, that's pretty impressive!!

On the issue of malfunctioning machines, refer to my blog from yesterday where I addressed this issue. In summary, the issue comes when a voter uses the straight-ticket selection. 

If you vote straight-ticket, the machine will need you to select "Cast Ballot" more than once in order to count your vote. In the past it only took selecting "Cast Ballot" once to do so; however, now it will require you to view the summary before actually casting your vote to make sure you actually want to use the straight-ticket selection.

As a rule of thumb, make sure you see the completion screen with the flag on it before you vacate the polling booth. If you don't see that Flag Screen then ask for help, the Election Staff will be more than happy to assist you.

So let's all get out and vote. vote Early or on Elections day but please do go out and vote.

Thanks,
Bill

Early Voting – Day One

As we all know, this year’s Presidential Election is anything but normal.

After looking at opening day totals, I would like to thank everyone for all their support. The first day or early voting saw large numbers of voting throughout the state and Milam County is no different.

Below I have posted the voting totals for yesterday below and the 2012 totals of Milam County Voters.

For October 24, 2016

Location – Voters (2012 Voters)

County Clerk’s Office – 261 (260)

Rockdale Juvenile Justice Center – 272 (181)

Buckholts Community Center – 16 (16)

Thorndale VFW – 84 (66)

Ballot by Mail – 365 (205)

Military – 14 (10)

Total – 1012 (738)

The total of 1012 voters casting ballots yesterday represents nearly 7 % of the eligible voters in Milam County. Not bad for the first day of voting

The number of voters voting yesterday was a 137% increase from the 2012 election and we have already received 15 more ballots by mail than the total received in 2012.

With these numbers showing up all over the state and country, it would appear 2016 may break all records for voter participation.

Early voting runs through November 4^th and the County Clerk’s office will be open from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm Saturday, October 29th for voting as well. You can vote at any of the locations.

There are still a limited number of Trump signs available, email me for directions on how to get one.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at milmgop@yahoo.com or at 254-482-0354.

Thanks,

Bill

Voting Machine Issues

Good Afternoon,

As we move through early voting I am already receiving phone calls of voting machines that are not registering votes correctly.

Currently we are not having any machine issues. The issues that folks have called about concern straight-ticket voting so let me explain how that works. Since you are straight-ticket voting and not selecting each candidate individually, the voting machine will make you look over the summary page before it allows you to cast your ballot. If you try and cast the ballot too quickly then it will make you verify your selection and possibly select the “Cast Ballot” button again.

Apparently, this is a verification step to allow each voter to verify that they are indeed voting for whomever they want and not skipping a down-ballot race they might have wished to vote in.

I would recommend that everyone take their time and use care when voting to make sure your ballot counts as cast.

If you have any concerns or thinks something is out of the ordinary, please contact one of the following; myself at the number below, the Milam County Clerk’s Office at 254-697-7049, or you can call the Ballot Integrity Hotline at 512-766-4597.

Thanks,

Bill

Bill Whitmire

Chairman,

Republican Party of Milam County

254-482-0354