I have three things to say about this.
In an about-face, Dallas County Republicans last week decided against hand-counting ballots in Texas’ March primary, saying they weren’t able to line up enough workers, among other hurdles.
That leaves just two counties where Republicans will hand-count their primary ballots: Gillespie County, west of Austin, and Eastland County, southwest of Fort Worth.
But Republicans in Dallas and Williamson counties are planning another major change for the March 3 primary election that will also require more election workers, and will affect how voters cast their ballots: They intend to eliminate the use of countywide voting sites on Election Day.
That means voters in these counties — Republicans and Democrats — would be required to cast ballots at assigned neighborhood polling places instead of at more centralized polling locations that can accommodate any voter from anywhere in the county.
Under state law, the parties have wide authority to decide how to run their primaries, but they must agree on whether to use countywide voting. If the Republicans don’t want to offer it, Democrats can’t offer it either.
Michelle Evans, the chair of the Williamson County GOP, said that having voters cast ballots at their assigned polling location brings “a higher level of confidence that the people that are coming in are people that are registered voters in that area, because that is their community.”
Democrats in those counties say they’re struggling to find enough locations to support neighborhood-level voting. “We don’t even have all the locations locked down,” said Kim Gilby, the Democratic Party chair in Williamson County. “To me, this is going to be a nightmare.”
Democrats also worry the change will confuse voters from both parties who have for years been used to countywide sites on Election Day. The move, they say, could potentially disenfranchise voters who go to the wrong location and aren’t able to cast a ballot.
In response to questions, Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Allen West said all voters receive registration cards that list their precinct. “I would hate to believe that we have devolved to a point where we feel the voting electorate is too incompetent to read their own voter registration card,” West told Votebeat in a text message.
See here for some background. My three things:
1. It really doesn’t sit right with me that one party gets to change the norm of voting centers that are used all throughout early voting just for Primary Day, while the other party has to accept it. I say there should be more of a burden on the party that wants to break the norm in that fashion, maybe by bearing more of the cost or by having to run that election separately. I don’t know what the best approach is, but it shouldn’t be that easy to make the other guys do it your special way on that one day.
And on a side note, to address the idiot Allen West’s ridiculous justification and as someone who remembers when voting was all precinct-based, what made it confusing was precisely that you didn’t know going in whether your precinct location would be where you’d vote. That’s because due to reasons such as turnout, cost, and variable demand depending on your location – even in a contested Presidential primary, there are only going to be so many Republicans voting in, say, Acres Homes, and only so many Democrats in Baytown – your actual location might have been consolidated with one or more other precincts. It was on you to look it up and figure out where you actually voted. Sure it’s not that hard to do, but it did always confuse some people. Some of those confused people, who may end up not getting to vote or voting in the wrong place as a result, will be Republicans.
2. The strategy for Dallas and Williamson County Democrats really has to be “Vote Early”. Vote early, vote early, vote early, because you can still vote wherever you want, wherever is most convenient for you. (Again, some of the people who will be voting on Primary Day for whom it would have been easier and more convenient to vote near where they work or on their way to or from work or where they’re picking their kids up or who knows what, will be Republicans. Does no one making this decision in Dallas or Williamson care about that?) The goal should be to get at least 80% of the vote to turn out early, to minimize the risk of votes getting lost.
3. And Harris County and Travis County and Bexar County and everywhere else, start thinking about how you would handle it if the GOP in your town tries this in 2028. Because unless the Lege takes action to discourage this – which they won’t – then you have no power to stop them if they’re hell-bent on it. You know what the risk is now. You’ll be able to learn from Dallas and WilCo’s experiences. Use that time wisely, just in case.