Secretary Steen Thanks Election Officials for Successful Election

AUSTIN, TX – Today, Texas Secretary of State John Steen thanked county election officials and volunteers for their hard work conducting the 2013 Constitutional Amendment Election.

“This was our first statewide election with a photo ID requirement in place, and it was smooth, secure and successful,” said Secretary Steen. “Significant credit goes to the county election officials, their employees and the thousands of poll workers across the state who helped execute this new requirement.”

After the photo ID requirement went into effect following a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in late June, and in accordance with the charge in the photo ID statute, Secretary Steen’s office implemented a statewide voter education campaign to prepare voters for the change. Secretary Steen praised county election officials for their efforts to educate voters on a more local level.

“Traveling around Texas as a part of our statewide voter education campaign, I had the opportunity to visit with many county election officials,” said Secretary Steen. “I was very impressed with their work to address local issues and concerns from voters. Additionally, they worked hard to make sure Texas poll workers were well trained to manage the photo ID requirement.”

Secretary Steen stressed that this was a constitutional amendment election that not only went well but saw increased turnout from the last comparable election. In 2011, the last constitutional amendment election, 690,052 voters cast a ballot. In the Nov 5 election the unofficial vote totals for Proposition 1 indicate that 1,144,844 voters cast a ballot, a 66 percent increase.