Most registered voters in Brazos County can expect a tangerine colored card to be arriving in the mail.
Voter Registrar Kristy Roe says more than 81,000 have been shipped.
But another 8,000 won’t get their new cards due to a variety of factors.
Voters should check the new card for accuracy. Corrections can be made by listing the change on the back of the certificate, sign it, then return it to Roe’s office for a replacement.
Roe says for the few who are voting in the Bryan city council runoff election later this month, they can use either registration card.
Click below for comments from Kristy Roe, visiting with WTAW’s Bill Oliver.
News release courtesy of Voter Registrar Kristy Roe:
Starting the week after the Thanksgiving holiday, Brazos County voters should watch their mail for more than Christmas sales. The Tax Office Voter Registration Department is mailing approximately 81,250 new voter certificates to active registrants. The new certificates are tangerine and white and will be valid for the two year period of January 2014 through December 2015. This bi-annual mailing has a two-fold purpose. It replaces the expiring yellow and white voter certificates, and identifies voters that may have moved in the previous two years without providing a change of address to the Voter Registrar.
Not all voters will have cards mailed to them. Many voter records have been placed in “suspense” due to information received from various sources that indicate the voter is no longer at the location listed in the records. When this type of information is received, the voter registration staff will place a voter on “suspense” and send a request to that voter to “confirm” their information.
The Brazos County Voter Registration Department currently has approximately 8,000 voters on suspense. The bi-annual mailing of certificates is expected to double that number. Under State Law, voter registration certificates cannot be forwarded to a new address by the postal service. Once the certificate is returned to the Voter Registrar by the Post Office, an address confirmation is sent to the voter.
The Address Confirmation form is postage paid and only takes a few minutes to complete. If the voter does not return the Address Confirmation form to the voter registration department, they are placed on the suspense list where they will stay until the record is corrected or confirmed. If no response is received during the cycle of two Federal Elections, the voter will be purged from the voter rolls.
Voters should check the new certificate closely for accuracy, sign it and keep it in a secure place. If an error is found, corrections can be made by listing the change on the back of the certificate, signing the card, then returning it to the Voter Registrar at the address on the front of the certificate. All changes and corrections to a voter registration record must be submitted in writing. Changes cannot be made over the telephone.
Registered voters who do not receive a voter card in the mail by January 2, 2014, should contact the Voter Registration Department of the Tax Office at 979-361-4470. Because of the new photo ID requirement for voting, residents may want to submit a change to their voter registration record to match their photo ID. This will simplify and speed up the check-in process when they go to the polls. Any corrections to their records must be made at least 30 days prior to the March Primary election to reflect the changes at the polling location.