Thousands of voters in Dallas and Williamson counties showed up at the wrong location to vote in Tuesday’s primary in Texas, according to the state Democratic Party.
While voters in both counties could cast ballots at any county-wide voting locations during the early voting period and in previous elections, casting ballots on Election Day in this year’s primary is limited to party-specific precinct polling sites, leaving many people confused about where they were supposed to go. Some voters are being turned away, while others are casting provisional ballots, Texas Democratic Party Director Terri Burke said.
“Around one-third of the voters are having problems,” Burke said in a phone interview, adding that he believed the move to precinct-based voting in the counties and redistricting contributed to the confusion.
Political parties, not local governments, oversee Election Day voting for Texas primaries. Democrats and Republicans in the state often administer elections jointly and outsource the operations to county election officials, who have in recent years opted to have county-wide voting centers that allow voters to cast a ballot wherever is most convenient for them.
In Dallas County, propelled by election conspiracy theories about the security of ballot-counting machines, Republicans opted to host separate primaries at the precinct level and hand-count their ballots. Under state law, both Democrats and Republicans must host their respective primaries at the precinct level if one party chooses to do so.
Dallas County Republicans ultimately abandoned their plans to count ballots by hand because of the high costs, but the precinct-level voting plans went forward.
Phone calls to the Dallas County election department lead to an automated phone message noting that voting is precinct-based on Election Day, and that voters must cast ballots at their assigned polling site. The message also offered an option to find your “Election Day Vote Centers,” which may confuse voters.
Voter who don’t appear on the precinct’s list of registered voters can cast a provisional ballot, but if it’s not their assigned polling site, it won’t be counted.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who represents a Dallas-based congressional district and is running for the Democratic Senate nomination, blasted Republicans over the confusion.
“Both Dallas and Williamson county voters have grown accustomed to countywide voting, including on Election Day,” her campaign said in a statement. “This effort to suppress the vote, to confuse and inconvenience voters is having its intended effect as people are being turned away from the polls. We are monitoring the situation and working with our local county party to explore all solutions, including an extension of Election Day voting hours.”
The campaign of Crockett’s main opponent in the primary, state Rep. James Talarico, said in a statement: “We are deeply concerned about the reports of voters being turned away from the polls.”