Now Go Vote

Election Day is November 3

Tomorrow the line is the Election Day line. In Texas the polls open at seven and close at seven. If you are in line at seven, you still vote.¹ Take your identification. Take the sample ballot you printed and marked on paper. Put the phone away before you enter the room where voting is taking place.²

There is no new argument tonight. The burden was named in September. The roll had its date. Early voting had its two weeks. Watchfulness had its instructions. What remains is the act. Co-responsibility for the common good is not an essay. It is a name on a list, a ballot compared with the paper in your hand, and a willingness to tell the judge if the races on the screen are not yours.³

If you voted already, you are not finished with charity. Offer a ride. Sit with a child so a parent can go. Ask one person who meant to go and has not. If you are homebound, offer the day. The rest of us can still be late for our own convenience. We should not be late for this.

Bexar County voters may use any Election Day vote center in the county. Look up the nearest open site before you leave. The county lookup will show the sample ballot that matches the district lines in effect on November 3. Readers elsewhere will use the hours and the place their own election office has posted. The duty does not change with the map.

When the ballot in your hand is yours, and you have read it, deposit it as the county instructs. Then go home. The watching that belongs to appointed officers and to the canvass is not a license to loiter in someone else’s work. You have done the part that was yours.

Notes

1. Texas Secretary of State, “November 3, 2026 Election Law Calendar,” https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/laws/advisory2026-21-november-3-election-law-calendar.shtml. Polls open 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Voters in line at closing may vote. Bexar County Elections: any Election Day vote center in the county.
2. Tex. Elec. Code § 61.014; Texas Secretary of State, Election Advisory No. 2026-13, https://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/laws/advisory2026-13.shtml. A wireless device may not be used in the room where voting is taking place. It may be used outside that room, including to review a sample ballot, provided it is not used to record within the prohibited area. Print the county sample ballot and carry paper. See Karen Early, “Safe Voting,” Fides et Ratio, October 30, 2026.
3. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), no. 2240; Karen Early, “The Citizen’s Burden: Integrity, Participation, and the Duty That Remains,” Fides et Ratio, September 14, 2026, https://fidesetratio.us/the-citizens-burden-integrity-participation-and-the-duty-that-remains/.