Who is the texas secretary of state
Secretary of State talks about voting in Texas
today is tomorrow in Texas Secretary of
State Carlos costco's is the chief
elections officer and he joins us live
from austin mr. secretary good morning
good morning okay so let's talk about
this for the first time in a
presidential election in Texas people
can use government documents other than
a photo ID there have been complaints
and counties all over the state about
confusing or even misleading information
about what kind of ID can be used so
before we go any further kind of take us
through what can people use what can
people bring to them tomorrow ok it's I
mean it shouldn't be that confusing if
voters have been voting with a approve
photo ID nothing changes for them they
continue going to the polls today or
during early boat and produce that photo
ID it can be a driver's license or a
passport you know a military ID for
those that do not possess or have a
photo ID then they have an option and
that option is twofold one day they must
sign a an impediment declaration stating
that they that they do not possess or
have one of the seven approved photo IDs
and they they would briefly explain the
reason on that document but they also
have to take another form of
identification which would be like
something simple like you did a utility
bill it could be a bank statement it can
be a certified birth certificate or even
their voter registration card along
along with the along with their their
impediment document sure so you know and
this is your world you work in it every
day that is my world but there have been
complaints from several counties that
hey this is people aren't understanding
or they're being misled by people at
polling places in terms of what's
allowed what is your office doing to
make sure everything is clear for people
well we provided the necessary
information to all 254 counties in Texas
you know there there was some some early
confusion early on during the early
voting process but we monitor that we
will communicate directly with the
elections office of that of that county
to make sure that that the information
that they're disseminating is accurate
what about the questions about the
election being perhaps hacked or rigged
what's being done here in Texas
well I mean it would be highly unlikely
for that to happen every you know every
every county is independent in and of
itself so some would have to hack you
know every single County and you know
none of those elections are on the
internet so it'd be very difficult to do
that we've heard that but it's it's
highly unlikely very improbable for
something like that to happen in Texas
record number of early voters out in
this election does this help your office
at all in terms of easing some of the
chaos tomorrow well well we don't know
what the final number is going to be
tomorrow of course we're all looking
forward to your to high turnout we do
have a record number of registered
voters over 15 point 1 million that that
in itself is a Texas record we're
certainly hoping for for a great turnout
tomorrow as well Secretary of State
Carlos Costco's thank you again so much
for taking the time on what I'm sure is
a very busy day for you thank you very
much for having us you're welcome
