Texas Republican Introduces Bill to Ban Polling Places in Public Schools
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Thursday, March 9, Texas Rep. Carrie Isaac introduced House Bill 4465, a bill that would ban polling locations on public K-12 school campuses. Last month, Isaac introduced a bill that would ban polling locations on university campuses, which was recently referred to the Texas House’s elections committee.
Under H.B. 4465, polling places would not be allowed to be located “on a public primary or secondary school campus.” Isaac claims that the measure is intended to promote student safety, stating “I don’t believe it’s wise that we invite people onto our campuses that would not normally have a purpose on our campus.” However, many Texas counties view public schools as a good location to site polling locations because they’re convenient and widely known to the community. In 2022, for example, Travis County (home to the state’s capital city of Austin) had 38 polling locations at K-12 schools. If H.B. 4465 becomes law, those locations would have to be relocated somewhere else.