Last night I was performing my usual pre-election ritual – screaming, jumping, massaging my voter registration card – when I happened to check my polling location for Saturday’s run-off vote. Come to find that the usual location at the local middle school has been changed to a Travis County facility. Since I doubt that many people check the city’s election info site, I imagine some folks will be in for a surprise when they head to the polls.

Some of the more conspiracy-minded residents of my precinct might suspect our high-turnout neighborhood was a targeted recipient of this confusion. I suspect it has more to do with a general consolidation of staff to accommodate the expected sparse turnout. Either way, it’s not exactly a boon to democracy to keep voters second-guessing on election day.

Thankfully the Texas Lege actually managed to make itself useful this session by enacting HB 1209, which enables county-wide voting on election day, just as is done for early voting. While this only applies to November elections, it should certainly help reduce confusion and enhance turn-out.