Citing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Brazoria County has moved the upcoming May 2 election to November.
The county clerk announced the change on the county website.
“The May 2020, Joint Local Election, has been moved to the November 2020 Election,” the county website states.
Brazoria County isn’t the only county making the change, although not all of them have selected such a late date.
The secretary of state urged all municipal runoff elections to be moved moved to July 14.
“If you don’t move your May 2nd election, you are subjecting voters to health risks and potential criminal violations,” Keith Ingram, director of the Texas Secretary of State’s Elections Division, wrote in an email to local governments. “Failure to postpone your election will put your election at severe risk for an election contest."
As of April 3, most elections had been moved, but some were still on as elections officials said they'd found ways to conduct the in-person elections safely while observing social distancing rules.
The federal stimulus package, aimed at helping local communities deal with the ongoing crisis, includes $400 million to help with elections, including voting by mail. However, while some states, including Ohio, have moved to conduct primaries entirely by mail, that may not be an option in Texas according to rules posted on the state’s web site. State laws only allow people 65 and older, jail inmates, those traveling abroad, or those with chronic illness to vote by mail.
Most Texas voters have to register to vote in person; however, that could prove difficult, as most, if not all county elections offices are closed to the public due to the governor’s order preventing groups of people larger than 10 from gathering in an effort to stop the virus from spreading too quickly. The state does offer an option of printing out a form from the website and mailing it in to the correct county office.
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