Former Texas Republican Party chairman Allen West gives remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday, July 11, 2021, in Dallas. (Elias Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News)
Elias Valverde II/Staff Photographer
Dallas County GOP chair Allen West’s decision to return to countywide voting in the May 26 runoff has triggered a backlash inside the party, one that could cost him his post.
The Republican Party’s executive committee will vote April 20 on whether to oust West as chair after he broke from the group’s earlier agreement to hold precinct-based voting for this year’s primary and runoff election days.
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The GOP’s demand to use precincts in last month’s primary also prevented Democrats from using the countywide system in place since 2019 in which residents can cast a ballot at any vote center regardless of their address.
The switch caused thousands of confused Republicans and Democrats alike to be turned away from polls and redirected to their neighborhood precincts.
West said he is facing resistance for refusing to follow a course he believes could harm the local party. In his weekly blog post on Monday, West said he chose to return to countywide voting for the runoff to protect the party from potential litigation that may allege “willful and intentional voter disenfranchisement.”
But after he amended the GOP’s contract with the county elections department to reflect the change last month, about 35 party members signed a petition pushing back, West told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday.
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West, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, said it was his idea to hold a vote at this month’s regular meeting on whether to vacate his seat.
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“I made that (runoff) decision fully aware of the consequences and ramifications, just like the decision I made to protect my soldiers in combat in Iraq,” West wrote in his blog.
He continued: “I firmly recognize that continuing down the path of precinct based voting on runoff election day will expose the DCRP to a most dangerous course of action … The left is always looking out to make an example of those who would challenge them.”
Without mentioning West by name, Barry Wernick, a precinct chair and the Republican candidate for Dallas County Commission District 2, wrote on X last week that the party’s executive committee had not voted to abandon precinct-based voting for the runoff.
“Nothing’s changed,” he wrote. Wernick called countywide voting “unlawful and unconstitutional.”
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While political parties have authority over their primary’s election day in Texas, state law gives control of the early voting period to county officials.
County Administrator Paul Adams maintained countywide voting for the primary’s early voting period, making the switch to precincts effective only on election day.
If he is voted out of office, West, who was reelected to a second two-year term last month, said he will turn the seat over to Vice Chair Tami Brown-Rodriguez. West on Tuesday could not confirm whether the party would have to hold a special election to select the next chair.
It will be more turnover in the county GOP’s history of inconsistent leadership, with seven chairs in the past 10 years. The Republican Party is the political minority in Dallas County.
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“My removal will not be due to any nefarious, corrupt, or scandalous actions on my part,” West wrote. “It will be because a group of individuals wishes to have their way, and expose the organization to potential harm. I will not be a signatory to such, as it would violate every leadership principle that I know.”
In September, more than 200 Republican precinct chairs voted to hold a separate primary from Democrats for this year’s primary, return to precinct-based voting and hand count tens of thousands of GOP ballots. The party dropped the hand-count portion in December after failing to secure enough workers to perform the manual tally.
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While West decided to return to countywide voting with Democrats in the May 26 runoff, it will remain a non-joint election as was done in last month’s primary. This means separate check-in tables, workers and voting machines for each party inside shared locations during early voting and on election day. Voters will be selecting their parties’ remaining candidates for county, state and federal offices then.
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At Tuesday’s Dallas County commissioners’ meeting, Democrat John Wiley Price asked whether the Republican Party could rescind West’s recent contract amendment and force a return to precinct-based voting. Adams, the elections administrator, said that change would occur too close to the runoff to be feasible and he wants to move forward with the signed contract he has in hand.
“What happened in the last election is proof that we do not want any last-minute changes,” Adams said.