Status of late primary ballots in two Texas counties remains uncertain

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Late ballots from extended polling-place hours in Dallas County and Williamson County remained in limbo after the Texas Supreme Court stepped in, leaving election officials uncertain whether the votes would count in the state’s primary contests.

The AP reported that as of Wednesday afternoon, county election officials were still waiting for direction on whether ballots cast during the extended hours would be included in vote totals, after the high court ordered the ballots in question be separated. The issue stemmed from confusion about voting locations and the hours the polls remained open in each county.

In Dallas County, the AP said county election officials were addressing ballots set aside following the Supreme Court’s action on a Tuesday night stay of a lower court’s ruling. The AP also reported that the same type of situation affected Williamson County, where hours were extended at two polling places and the last-minute ballots were set aside.

Terri Burke, executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, said the Supreme Court’s action was expected and that it was likely the late ballots would not be counted. She also told the AP that it remained possible to document voters who were “disenfranchised” during the confusion at polling places.

The AP reported uncertainty about how many ballots were cast during extended hours in Dallas County. According to data on the county Elections Department’s website, 2,316 in-person “provisional” ballots were rejected or pending, a figure the AP described as including ballots flagged for a variety of issues as well as ballots the Supreme Court ordered to be segregated. The AP also reported that nearly 280,000 people voted in the county based on unofficial figures from the department.

Burke focused on what she described as chaos tied to the precinct-only voting system Dallas County was forced to use because of a change by local Republicans. Under that system, voters could cast ballots only in their assigned precinct, while the AP said Democrats had to use the same method under state law.

On Tuesday in Dallas County, a judge ordered polls to remain open for two hours past the scheduled 7 p.m. closing time, citing “voter confusion so severe” that it caused the county election office website to crash, according to the AP. The judge’s order applied only to Democratic voting precincts, and the AP reported there had been initial concern the extended hours could have affected the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate because Dallas is the home base of Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

After the high court stayed the lower court’s decisions, the AP reported that Crockett later conceded to James Talarico. Meanwhile, the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton—who advanced to a runoff against Sen. John Cornyn for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate—challenged the lower court’s ruling.

The Supreme Court’s brief orders, as described by the AP, stayed both Dallas and Williamson County decisions and directed that ballots cast by voters in both counties who were not in line by the 7 p.m. scheduled close be separated. The AP reported that the Supreme Court’s stay left the counties waiting for further direction on whether such segregated ballots would be included in totals.

Common Cause Texas voting advocates said the ballots set aside during extended polling hours are often ultimately counted when no one contests the extension, according to the AP. The group’s policy director, Emily French, cited an example from El Paso where voting was extended after earlier problems with voter check-in systems and said she expected ballots from an extended window to be tallied if the extension was not disputed.

Anthony Gutierrez, Common Cause Texas executive director, said the group was monitoring the situation and said it would be “weighing all options to ensure every Texan is able to have their vote counted,” as reported by the AP.