Early voting for the Nov. 3 general election starts Oct. 19 in Collin County and runs through Oct. 30, giving voters a 12-day window to cast a ballot before Election Day. Steven Dial spoke with the Collin County elections administrator about the schedule and the places where voters can go.
For the first stretch, voting runs from Oct. 19 through Oct. 23, from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. The county then switches to a longer day from Oct. 26 through Oct. 30, when polling sites are open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. That change is built into the early voting calendar, and it is the reason voters checking hours this week will see two different blocks on the schedule.
The timing matters because Collin County voters do not have to go to a single assigned site. They can cast a ballot at any early voting center in the county, which makes the list of locations the practical part of the story. Among the places open for early voting are Allen ISD Service Center and Allen Public Library in Allen, Anna Community Library in Anna, Blue Ridge ISD Administration Building in Blue Ridge, Carpenter Park Recreation Center in Plano, and several Collin College campuses across Celina, Farmersville, Frisco, McKinney, Plano and Wylie.
That flexibility gives voters room to choose the site that fits their day, but it also makes the hours matter more than the address. A voter headed to the Allen ISD Service Center, for example, has to know whether the county is in the Oct. 19 to Oct. 23 schedule or the Oct. 26 to Oct. 30 schedule before leaving home. The same is true at every other listed location, from 1451 N Watters Road in Allen to 1391 Country Club Road in Wylie.
For now, the answer is simple: early voting is open, the schedule changes once during the period, and Collin County voters have until Oct. 30 to use any county early voting center before the Nov. 3 general election.
