The Texas Supreme Court ordered all Dallas County ballots cast by voters in line after 7 p.m. be separated Tuesday night.
That’s after hundreds of Dallas County voters arrived at polling locations where they thought they could vote on primary election day, March 3.
“Voting should occur only as permitted by Texas Election Code… Votes cast by voters who were not in line to vote at 7pm should be separated,” the order on the Supreme Court’s website read.
Dallas County Judge Staci Williams on Tuesday evening ordered polls to remain open until 9 p.m. — two hours longer than the 7 p.m. closing time.
The order, signed about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, shows that Kardal Coleman, Dallas County Democratic Party chair, filed an emergency petition for voting hours to be extended at polling places from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Williams agreed.
“…(T)he Court after reviewing the petition finds that there has been mass confusion as to where to voters[sic] were entitled to cast their ballot on election day, and voter confusion was so severe that the Dallas County Election Department website crashed…”
Williams’ order, which was put on hold by the high court Tuesday night, did not specifically distinguish between Democratic polling places and Republican polling places.
However, a pop-up box on the Dallas County Elections Department site stated that “Democratic Party polling locations in Dallas County will remain open until 9:00 PM pursuant to Court Order” and that “Republican Primary polling locations will close at 7:00 PM as scheduled.”
Dallas County Republican Party Chair Allen West praised the Supreme Court’s intervention Tuesday night.
“This whole thing about the Democrats being confused, I think that was a very weak excuse to do what they did,” West told KERA News.
County election department “navigators” informed hopeful voters who showed up at some voting locations that they could not cast ballots because they were at the wrong location.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett earlier Tuesday released a statement suggesting polling hours stay open as a solution to mass voter confusion in Dallas and Williamson counties, where Republicans chose to hold separate, precinct-based primary voting.
Dallas County
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Dallas County
Dallas County Judge Staci Williams signed an order for primary election day voting locations within the county to extend voting hours to 9 p.m. — two hours longer than the 7 p.m. poll closure time.
“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,” Crockett’s statement reads.
She trailed Texas Rep. James Talarico for a U.S. Senate seat 56% to 44% as of 8 p.m. on election night with nearly half of counties statewide reporting results.
Dallas County Commissioner Andy Sommerman said the number of voters who were redirected to their correct, precinct-designated voting location was more likely in the thousands.
“The navigators themselves are keeping records, they’re doing counts,” he said. “They don’t have to. It’s not part of the rules, and nor were they told to do it. But they thought it was important to keep track, and so they have been.”
By 1 p.m., nearly 50,000 votes had been counted.
Sommerman said the county election navigators reported 60% of people who showed up to vote at Northway Christian Church were turned away because they were at the wrong polling place. At Royal Lane Baptist Church it was 50%. The numbers were similar at Fretz Park Library, he said.
Northway Christian, Royal Lane Baptist and Fretz Park library were all voting locations where both Republicans and Democrats could cast their ballots.
“I have counted five of those,” he said. “That’s a thousand, that is five and we have hundreds of voting locations and so you will be at thousands by end of day, I have no doubt about it.”
While voters at those locations may have gone to the wrong precinct-designated locations, in Commissioner John Wiley Price’s district, a church that had long been a joint polling place for Democrats and Republicans was contracted for only Republicans to vote for this primary.
The county was in charge of managing and operating early voting countywide locations, which allowed Democrats and Republicans to vote at any location throughout the county.
The Dallas County Republican Party chose to hold separate primary elections after it abandoned its effort to hand-count all primary election day ballots.
That decision meant the Democratic and Republican parties would contract with public and private locations to host Election Day polling places.
Williams presides over the 101st Civil District Court.
Communities reporter Priscilla Rice and breaking news reporter Dylan Duke contributed to this report.
Got a tip? Email Marina Trahan Martinez at [email protected]. You can follow Marina at @HisGirlHildy.
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