Election Day in Travis County Is Tuesday: 201 Vote Centers, Polls Open 7 to 7, and Any Site in the County Takes Your Ballot

Early voting is over, and it ended at a record: more than 405,000 Travis County voters cast ballots early, the biggest midterm early turnout in county history. Everyone who has not voted yet gets one more day — Tuesday, November 3, when the county opens 201 Election Day vote centers with polls running from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., according to the Travis County Clerk's election page.

The county's vote-center system is the voter's best friend on the day: a Travis County voter may cast a ballot at any polling site in the county, on Election Day just as during early voting — the site nearest work, school or home all count the same. Anyone standing in line at 7 p.m. may still vote. The clerk's office posts locations and wait times at votetravis.gov, and its elections line is 512-238-8683.

Two practical notes belong in every voter's pocket. Phones and electronic devices are not allowed at polling locations, so bring your picks written on paper — a marked-up sample ballot is the oldest trick in Texas voting and still the best one. And mail ballots face their own deadline on the same day: they must be postmarked, or delivered in person, by 7 p.m. on November 3.

The ballot waiting on Tuesday is the one early voters have been deciding all month — governor, lieutenant governor, the Texas Senate race between Ken Paxton and James Talarico that polling has held inside the margin of error, Austin's city races and the rest of the joint general and special elections. The weather desk is tracking a thunderstorm chance for Tuesday, which makes the county's any-site rule worth using early: the shortest line, whenever you find it, is the right one.