In ominous sign, Texas Republicans changed voting rules, then blocked efforts to protect voters

Primary voters line up to cast ballots at a voting center in Dallas, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Baffled Texans in two counties struggled to find their polling locations for primary voting Tuesday after a GOP-driven change. The secretary of state’s office failed to provide accurate information. Texas’ Republican attorney general sued to oppose extended voting hours for those confused voters. And the GOP-controlled state Supreme Court quickly ruled in its favor.  

The cascade of preventable problems and anti-voting lawfare suggests the GOP is laying the groundwork to erect more hurdles in the fall, when voters return to the polls for multiple competitive races — including a high-profile one for the U.S. Senate.

Hundreds of voters in Dallas and Williamson counties were turned away and redirected to other polling locations Tuesday after local Republicans needlessly abandoned the countywide voting systems that previously allowed voters to cast a ballot at any polling location. Now voters were forced to go to a specific precinct polling place.

Under Texas election rules, Democrats were also beholden to the GOP’s decision to switch to precinct-based voting on Election Day.

Republicans offered little explanation for the change, with Williamson County Republican Party Chair Michelle Evans telling KUT News, “I could get into all of those details, but at the end of the day, it’s because we can. It’s legal. It’s something we’re entitled to do, and it’s something that our party would like us to do.” 

But the switch to precinct voting aligns with a growing far-right push to scrap vote centers and require voting to be conducted in one place on one day.

The shift away from vote centers is based on conspiracy theories that allege voters are able to cast multiple ballots at multiple locations, Emily Eby French, an attorney with Common Cause Texas, told Democracy Docket. 

She believes there was a clear takeaway from Tuesday’s election problems.

“We can’t let a small group of conspiracy theorists set the rules for Texas voters anymore,” French said. “Two individuals controlled the way millions of Texas voters were able to cast a ballot yesterday. The opinions of those two GOP chairs about countywide voting were based in conspiracy theory, not based in fact, and those conspiracy theories caused widespread panic, confusion and disenfranchisement.”

Of course, the confusion impacted Republican voters, as well. 

“It astounds me how much the Williamson and Dallas County GOPs didn’t seem to care about inconveniencing and disenfranchising their own voters, as long as they also disenfranchised Democratic voters,” French said. 

And while both counties will use countywide voting in the November general election, the confusion isn’t over yet. Voters will face the same problems again in the upcoming primary election runoffs. 

State Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos (D) blasted Republicans for complicating voting. 

“The confusion is the point,” Ramos said in a social media post. “It was the Dallas Republican Party’s choice to end countywide voting. Now a Republican Court steps in to assist with confusion and chaos. This is the GOP voter suppression that Dems must come together to overcome in November.”

Not accidental

So far, the Republicans appear happy with the results of their voter suppression measures. 

In a statement Wednesday, Dallas County Republican Party Chair Allen West reveled in the mass confusion the rules change caused, saying that GOP voters proved their “ability to adapt and overcome” Election Day problems. 

“It’s apparent that Democrats struggled with grasping basic civics and their usual attempt at lawfare backfired. Steadfast and Loyal!” West wrote.

As voters struggled to discern where to cast their ballots, Texas Democrats sought to defend their right to vote.

Dallas County Democratic Party Chair Kardal Coleman filed an emergency petition Tuesday seeking to give voters more time to cast their ballots. The Texas Civil Rights Project filed a similar petition in Williamson County.

A Dallas district court judge ordered that Democratic primary polls stay open an additional two hours, noting in the order that “there has been mass confusion as to where…voters were entitled to cast their ballots on election day, and voter confusion was so severe that the Dallas County Election Department website crashed.” 

In Williamson County, a judge ordered two polling locations to remain open until 10 p.m., including the Northstar Georgetown poll, where some voters reportedly waited over two hours to cast a ballot and others said they were sent to other locations. 

Then Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) — who is currently challenging incumbent Sen. John Cornyn (R) in the primary — appealed the orders in both counties. 

Paxton’s office argued that the Dallas order was “void and unenforceable” because the trial court, in violation of a state law passed in 2025, did not give the Texas attorney general’s office statutorily required notice before issuing it. It included the same argument in its Williamson County filing.

The Texas Supreme Court quickly moved to temporarily block the lower courts’ orders, ordering the counties to separate out votes cast by people who were not in line by 7 p.m. It remains unclear whether their ballots will ultimately be counted.

Precinct voting wasn’t even the most radical idea floated by the state GOP.

In September, chairman West announced that the party would hand count every ballot cast in its March primary this year to “restore confidence in an electoral process.” 

But in December, it was forced to scrap the plan after it became clear that it wouldn’t be possible to complete the count within 24 hours of the polls closing, as required by state law.

This story has been updated to include additional information.