A preview of what is to come in November.
“Around one-third of the voters are having problems,” Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Terri Burke said in a phone interview, adding that she believed redistricting and the move to precinct-based voting in the counties contributed to the confusion.
By design and influenced by far right wing conspiracy theories regarding voting machines, the Dallas County GOP chose to abandon countywide voting in favor of precinct-level voting and led, Democrats say, thousands of voters to show up at the wrong polling site.
Earlier in the evening, a Dallas County judge ordered Democratic polling sites to stay open for an additional two hours for the Texas primary to give voters a chance to cast their ballots.
Then, the Texas Supreme Court stepped in and overturned the lower court’s ruling and ordered all ballots cast by voters who were not in line before 7 p.m. local time to be separated from the rest of the day’s votes. The court issued a similar ruling for two polling locations in Williamson County.
Previously, including during early voting, voters in the two counties could cast ballots at any countywide voting locations., But casting ballots Tuesday was limited to party-specific precinct polling sites, confusing many people about where they were supposed to go. Some voters were turned away, while others cast provisional ballots, Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Terri Burke said.
Texas US Senate Race Results:
