SAN PATRICIO COUNTY, Texas — Election officials across the coastal bend finished last minute touches in preparation of early voting starting Oct. 13. County election offices were taking extra time to prepare voting locations during the pandemic.
"Because of social distancing, we of course have to mark it off 6 feet apart," said Pamela Hill, San Patricio County Elections Administrator.
Hill said those preparations included setting up tables with personal-protective-equipment, marking spots along the floor to separate voters and offering curbside voting to more people.
"Anyone that has the fear of coming in because they're afraid they may catch COVID-19, or they're feeling sick and they're not sure that they don't have COVID-19, so they would rather stay in their car," said Hill.
Hill said they've always offered curbside to people who had difficulty getting into the polling places, but because of COVID-19, they extended that service during the pandemic.
"We have election workers that have been sworn in to uphold the integrity of the election so their job is strictly to secure that vote," said Hill.
Hill said they're confident in the security measures that were in-place and even more-so after conducting their public pre-test.
"Our test was accurate and we did two pre-test before we opened it to the public and all of our tests came out perfect," said Hill.
The county also continued to encourage San Patricio residents to take advantage of the early voting period.
"We are excited that it's finally here and I feel very confident that we're ready for voters and we hope to have a big turnout tomorrow," said Hill.
You can find a list for San Patricio voting locations here.