Texas election officials and candidates faced fallout Tuesday after voters in Dallas County and Williamson County were reportedly turned away at polling locations following a change in primary voting rules, leading to last-minute court intervention and uncertainty about whether some ballots would count.
The disruption had the most direct impact on the Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate race, according to Associated Press reporting, and centered on a closely watched contest between Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state lawmaker James Talarico. Crockett told supporters Tuesday night that the race could not be decided without results from Dallas County, where she is based.
“I can tell you, people were disenfranchised,” Crockett said, describing the consequences of the rule change and the ensuing confusion.
The chaos began when voters in the two counties were turned away and redirected to different precincts after local Republicans opted against countywide voting for the primary. AP reported that for years, voters in both counties had been allowed to cast a ballot anywhere in their county, but for this primary, voters could vote only at their assigned precincts because state law requires both major parties to agree to the countywide system.
In Dallas County, a judge ordered polls to remain open for two hours past the scheduled 7 p.m. closing time, and the judge cited “voter confusion so severe” that it caused the website of the county election office to crash, AP reported. The judge acted on a petition filed by the local Democratic Party in a heavily left-leaning county.
Afterward, the Texas Supreme Court stayed both decisions, responding to requests by the Texas attorney general’s office, AP said. The Supreme Court’s brief orders directed that ballots cast by voters in both counties who were not in line by the 7 p.m. scheduled close of polls should be separated, though AP said the number of affected ballots could not immediately be determined.
Renea Hicks, a longtime Texas appellate lawyer, told AP that the Supreme Court’s action was preliminary and did not resolve whether the separated ballots would eventually be counted. “That doesn’t mean ‘throw them away.’ It doesn’t meant they won’t count,” Hicks said. “We don’t know what it means.”
AP reported that confusion also involved where people were sent when they arrived to vote. Nic Solorzano, a Dallas County Elections Department spokesperson, said the county was seeing “a lot of people that are going to their vote centers that they usually go to … and not realizing they can’t do that anymore. They have to go to their precinct-based location.”
Solorzano also said that after nearly seven years of voters being able to cast ballots anywhere in the county, the elections department had to “retool our entire operation to go back to precinct-based voting for Election Day.” AP said county officials used signs, ads, and text messages and mailers to inform voters, and that former poll workers were stationed with tablets to help people find the correct place to vote.
Even with that effort, local Democrats said large numbers of voters were turned away. Brenda Allen, executive director of the Dallas Democratic Party, said her offices were overwhelmed by hundreds of calls from voters who were trying to find their precincts, and she pointed to the timing of precinct line changes after mid-decade redistricting. Allen said her offices heard “Lots of reports of people being turned away, hundreds of people unable to vote. Both parties are affected by this.”
Williamson County Democrats reported similar problems reaching their headquarters by phone. Executive director Madison Dickinson said the party was “having significant problems with the precinct-level voting” and that Republicans, too, were calling the Democratic Party for help, AP reported. AP also said the Williamson County Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment.
The dispute unfolded as Texas was among three states kicking off the 2026 midterm elections Tuesday, along with North Carolina and Arkansas, with AP reporting that voting elsewhere was generally smooth aside from a North Carolina county issue tied to electronic poll books. For Texas, the combined rule change and court-ordered handling of ballots left voters, candidates, and election officials bracing for additional legal developments and questions over who ultimately gets counted.