Potential battleground Texas sees start of in-person voting

HOUSTON (AP) — Eating at a restaurant as the coronavirus spreads across Texas doesn’t necessarily feel safe to Regina Cuchapin, but the Houston resident is willing to take a calculated risk and put herself among crowds to do at least one thing: vote.

Cuchapin and most of the millions of others in the second most populous state in the U.S. will perform their civic duty in person. Texas is one of just five states that did not substantially expand mail-in voting this year, despite official health warnings against attending large gatherings to curb the spread of COVID-19. To be allowed to vote by absentee ballot in Texas, voters must be 65 or older; have a disability; or be outside the county where you're registered to vote on Election Day and during early voting.

But Cuchapin, a healthcare worker and registered Democrat, said she felt reassured by the measures county voting officials have taken to protect voters, even as the state’s death toll from the coronavirus races toward 17,000.

“I think that now that people know how serious it is and what precautions to take, I think those who are ready to come out are taking those precautions,” said Cuchapin, who plans to participate in early voting, which starts Tuesday.

Much is at stake this cycle in America’s largest red state, which has competitive congressional and state legislative races and has hit the presidential radar as a potential battleground. Yet voters on both sides of the aisle say their desire to cast a ballot outweighs their virus concerns.

With 16 million registered voters in Texas, election officials are taking novel approaches to protect the electorate.

In Harris County — which includes Houston and is home to more than 2.4 million voters — there will be triple the number of polling places compared to in previous elections. Voters will be...