Groups: Extend voter sign-up in Ike-hit counties

Houston Votes, Equality Texas, People for the American Way, the League of Women Voters and others said they want Perry to extend the deadline for at least seven days in the 29 hurricane-ravaged counties that have been declared disaster areas.

"Many Texans already have lost all their possessions to Hurricane Ike; they should not also lose their right to vote this November," said Fred Lewis, spokesman for Houston Votes, an association of nonprofit groups that is registering people to vote in Harris County.

Under state law, Texans who want to cast a ballot in the Nov. 4 general election must have their voter registration applications postmarked by Oct. 6.

Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said the governor would have to be asked by individual counties to extend the deadline before he could make such a decision. She said he hasn't received a local request and hasn't been told by any county official that there is a registration problem.

Extending the registration deadline would be highly unusual. The Texas secretary of state's office said it had no record of that happening in at least the past two decades.

Secretary of State Hope Andrade has been told by officials in heavily damaged Galveston and Chambers counties that early voting and Election Day voting will proceed on schedule, said her spokesman, Randall Dillard.

"We're not aware of any voting machines that were damaged or anything like that," Dillard said. He said residents displaced by the storm who cannot return home by then can request a mail-in ballot by Oct. 28.

Or, if a voter decides to remain in another county and change his or her place of residency, the voter can register to vote in the new county, Dillard said. But he acknowledged that would not allow the voter to participate in the local races of his or her original home county.

"There are options," he said. "We believe all Texans have the opportunity to participate in the general election."