It may be\u00a0awhile\u00a0before\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a final\u00a0count of\u00a0election day primary\u00a0votes cast in Dallas\u00a0County\u00a0this week\u00a0\u2014\u00a0or a decision on whether\u00a0they\u2019ll\u00a0ever\u00a0be\u00a0counted.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
How many Dallas County residents\u00a0weren\u2019t able\u00a0to vote because of widespread confusion\u00a0over polling locations? We may never know.
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And the impact of Tuesday\u2019s chaos on political races in Dallas County \u2014 as well as statewide and\u00a0congressional races \u2014 may be debated for\u00a0a very long\u00a0time.\u00a0
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How did this happen?\u00a0
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Decisions made years ago may have led to Tuesday’s chaos. But the immediate catalyst was the decision by a Dallas County judge to\u00a0keep polls open until 9 p.m. \u2014 then the Texas Supreme Court\u2019s decision to separate\u00a0ballots cast after\u00a07 p.m.\u00a0
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\u201cI’ll be\u00a0honest,\u00a0I don’t know whether they’re\u00a0going to be included in the preliminary or final results,\u201d said Dallas attorney Chris Patton, a former Dallas County election judge.\u00a0\u201cI know the process\u00a0is\u00a0they segregate them. And\u00a0that’s\u00a0what the Texas Supreme Court said to do.\u201d\u00a0
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Patton said\u00a0the ballots may\u00a0ultimately be\u00a0counted or the Supreme Court may rule that \u201cthe extension is invalid and the segregated ballots would not be\u00a0counted.\u201d\u00a0
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The safest bet, he said, \u201cwould have been to keep the polls open, count the votes, segregate them, and [bring] the issue to the courts.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
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Where to vote?<\/p>\n
Thousands who showed up to vote on\u00a0Election Day\u00a0quickly learned that they could not vote at just any location, despite\u00a0a\u00a0county election department campaign to inform registered voters through their website, post office\u00a0mail\u00a0and social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A woman named Shamyra, who only wanted to share her first name, said Tuesday she didn’t know voting locations were assigned by precinct and worried that she wouldn’t make it to the right location in time. <\/p>\n
“Today I’m just kind of driving around trying to figure out where to vote,” she said. “So this is about my fourth building. I’ve been to just because I go somewhere, they tell me to go somewhere else.”<\/p>\n
The long and winding road<\/p>\n
But the rocky road to voters being turned away from casting ballots in the 2026 primary election did not start when polls opened at 7 a.m. on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
For Dallas County voters, it began in 2024.\u00a0
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Early that year, the Dallas County Republican Party shared a vision statement that\u00a0supported\u00a0counting ballots\u00a0by\u00a0hand to restore election confidence.\u00a0
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Moving forward with that plan failed by one vote.\u00a0
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A discussion to try again\u00a0followed in\u00a0early summer\u00a02025.\u00a0
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By Sept. 9, the bipartisan Dallas County Election Commission unanimously chose Ohio\u2019s Paul Adams to take over as the county\u2019s elections administrator.\u00a0
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Less than one week later, the local Republican Party again voted to hand-count primary election ballots \u2014 this time, it passed.\u00a0
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Adams arrived the next month and began working on strategies to hold separate Democratic and Republican primaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trump weighs in<\/p>\n
On Dec. 2, Donald Trump\u00a0incorrectly\u00a0posted on social media that Dallas County would\u00a0use all\u00a0paper ballots.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Financial reimbursement\u00a0and\u00a0logistical and personnel challenges\u00a0caused Republicans to\u00a0abandon\u00a0their\u00a0hand-counting\u00a0ballot effort\u00a0by the end of the month.\u00a0Republican Party Chair Allen West\u00a0said it was too\u00a0risky\u00a0and a decision had to be made before\u00a0the contract agreement deadline\u00a0with Dallas County Election Department\u00a0on Dec. 31.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hand-counting ballots\u00a0would have made\u00a0separate,\u00a0precinct-based\u00a0primaries\u00a0automatic \u2014 for both Republican and Democratic parties.
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Though\u00a0that was off the table, the party chose\u00a0to\u00a0still hold separate primaries.\u00a0That meant Republican and Democratic voters could vote only at one location\u00a0designated\u00a0by a voter\u2019s registration address.<\/p>\n
Those polling places, and countywide early voting locations, were due about one month before early voting started Feb. 17.\u00a0Early voting locations\u00a0weren\u2019t\u00a0agreed upon and\u00a0finalized\u00a0until Feb. 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adams, the elections administrator, warned of polling place confusion long before Tuesday’s election. He told county commissioners in a Feb. 3 meeting that separate Republican and Democratic elections had stressed planning.<\/p>\n
“This is a severe strain on the office,” he said. “Because as we look at making changes, we’re at a point where \u2014 we’re 28 days from this election \u2014 to make sure that the public can be made aware and then internally we can order enough supplies and make sure everything is properly delivered.”<\/p>\n
In separate elections, each party\u00a0is responsible for\u00a0securing and contracting Election Day polling places.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those were not executed and\u00a0finalized\u00a0until Feb. 18 \u2014 less than two weeks before Election Day \u2014 which meant voters still did not know and could not plan where to vote in their respective primary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Record voter turnout<\/p>\n
It was clear that the 2026 primary election would set Dallas County voter turnout records when early voting ended Feb. 27.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Daily turnout usually is in the\u00a0very low\u00a0thousands.\u00a0Typically, 1,000 to 3,000 Republicans and Democrats combined show up each day during primary and mid-term early voting, according to\u00a0the\u00a0elections department.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This time, the daily average\u00a0was\u00a0about 17,000 Democrats and just under 6,000 Republicans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nearly 188,000\u00a0Democrats and 64,000 Republicans\u00a0cast ballots<\/a>\u202fduring early voting.\u00a0That’s\u00a0about 17 percent of Dallas County’s more than\u00a01.4 million registered voters\u00a0who\u00a0had\u00a0cast ballots ahead of primary Election Day. ‘Mass confusion’ on election day?<\/p>\n \u201cBedlam\u201d began Election Day morning and continued through the night, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price said, who has served the county for more than 50 years.\u00a0 Election department \u201cnavigators\u201d posted at voting locations redirected people, often not knowing whether the voters eventually found their correct polling place and cast a vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who ultimately lost her bid to become the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate race in Texas to Austin State Rep. James Talarico, had issued a statement<\/a> on Tuesday that criticized “precinct-specific voting locations in Dallas County and Williamson County as an “effort to suppress the vote” and to “confuse and inconvenience voters” that had the intended effect of turning people away from the polls.<\/p>\n Early Tuesday evening, Kardal Coleman, Dallas County Democratic Party precinct chair, asked a judge to\u00a0extend voting hours because of \u2018mass confusion,\u2019\u00a0according\u00a0Judge\u00a0Staci Williams\u2019 order to keep polling places open until 9 p.m.<\/p>\n Williams’ order did not specifically distinguish between Democratic polling places and Republican polling places.<\/p>\n 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.” The Supreme Court issued a stay Tuesday night stating that “Votes cast by voters who were not in line to vote at 7pm should be separated.”<\/p>\n West, the Republican Party chair, praised the Supreme Court’s intervention Tuesday night, saying that assertions “about the Democrats being confused” were a “very weak excuse” for what they did.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Dallas County voters continued\u00a0casting ballots after 7 p.m.,\u00a0though social media videos\u00a0showed\u00a0and voters reported to KERA that some\u00a0election judges\u00a0left or did\u00a0not accept voters because of confusion over\u00a0the\u00a0Supreme Court order.\u00a0<\/p>\n The election rocky road also did not end when polls closed at 7 \u2014 or 9 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n The next morning,\u00a0early voting and election\u00a0night\u00a0results revealed\u00a0several\u00a0local and statewide\u00a0race surprises.<\/p>\n It became\u00a0unclear whether voter confusion contributed to outcomes or whether ballots cast after 7\u00a0p.m.\u00a0were included in results.\u00a0 KERA Communities Reporter Priscilla Rice contributed to this report.<\/p>\n Got a tip? Email Marina Trahan Martinez at\u00a0mmartinez@kera.org<\/a>. You can follow Marina at\u00a0@HisGirlHildy<\/a>.<\/p>\n KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider\u00a0making a tax-deductible gift today<\/a>. Thank you.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
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That surpassed\u00a02018’s total early voting and primary Election Day turnout of 16 percent.
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Final election day numbers will tell whether this year beats the top two highest voter turnout totals, both of which were presidential election years, unlike the current mid-term elections.\u00a0
Dallas County’s all-time high voter turnout is 35 percent when Barack Obama first ran of 2008.
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The second highest voter turnout for a primary election was 27 percent in 2016 \u2014 when Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton ran for president.<\/p>\n
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Hundreds,\u00a0and\u00a0then\u00a0thousands,\u00a0of voters showed\u00a0up to wrong polling places.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Shortly after Williams’ order,\u00a0Attorney\u00a0General Ken\u00a0Paxton’s office asked the Texas Supreme\u00a0Court to\u00a0pause the\u00a0extended voting hours.\u00a0Paxton was on the Republican ballot for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n
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And county officials \u2014 who had\u00a0speculated\u00a0for months that voting changes could cause confusion and potential lawsuits and\u00a0close-race\u00a0legal\u00a0challenges \u2014 continued their efforts to sort out the election snarls.<\/p>\n