Harris County early voting underway with new touch screen machines

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Early voting for the May 1 election in Harris County began Monday, and county officials were excited to showed off their new voting machines.

Voters will now be required to feed a blank sheet of paper into the voting machine. Once you're done voting, selections will be printed on that paper so voters can check it.

Voters will have to feed that paper into the ballot scanner for the vote to be counted.

Another big change: machines are touch screen. So, you no longer have to turn that wheel.

Early voting runs through April 27. Nearly 400,000 Harris County residents are eligible to vote in this upcoming election. All races in the election can be viewed on the Harris Votes website.

Early voting for two Spring Branch ISD school board seats also started Monday.

Candidates Chris Earnest and Virginia Elizondo are vying for the Position 4 seat, and incumbent Minda Caesar is running unopposed for Position 3. Each board member serves a three-year term.

Earnest lists his occupation as consultant. Elizondo lists her occupation as chief executive officer, senior director and adjunct lecturer.

Early voting will be held April 19 - 24 and April 26 - 27.