Tag Archives: hand counting

An overview of the Dallas County precinct voting fiasco

Posted on May 16, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s Talking Points Memo with a closer look at what happened in Dallas in March and where all that is coming from. Since the 2020 election, right-wing activists have accelerated their efforts to curtail access to voting by promoting conspiracy … Continue reading →

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Dallas gets to keep voting centers for the primary runoff

Posted on April 27, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Good, but perhaps not the end of the story. A North Texas appeals court rejected a petition from a Dallas County republican trying to force the county to hold a precinct-specific Election Day for the upcoming primary election. The petition … Continue reading →

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Dallas Republicans demand a return to precinct voting chaos

Posted on April 22, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Oh good lord… Some Dallas County Republicans on Monday sued the county elections department in a bid to require voters to cast ballots for the May 26 primary runoff at specific polling places in their precincts rather than any location … Continue reading →

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Republicans had trouble with precinct voting, too

Posted on March 25, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

I know, I know, I’m shocked too. At least 12,674 Dallas County voters trying to cast ballots in both party primaries showed up at the wrong polling locations March 3 after the county GOP forced the elimination of countywide polling … Continue reading →

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Dallas County will get voting centers for Runoff Day

Posted on March 20, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Hooray for small victories. But don’t expect more than that. Dallas County Republicans will agree to allow voters to cast ballots at countywide voting sites for the May 26 runoff election after a switch to precinct-based voting sites caused chaos, … Continue reading →

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Dallas Dems withdraw lawsuit over uncounted primary ballots

Posted on March 14, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s deal with the headline and then get into what it means. Primary ballots cast by Democratic voters in Dallas who got in line to vote after 7 p.m. won’t be tallied, after the county Democratic party Thursday withdrew a … Continue reading →

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When hand counts go wrong

Posted on March 8, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

There are supposed to be consequences for this. But will there be? Calhoun County finished submitting its primary election results to the state Friday morning after county Republicans, who hand counted their primary ballots, missed a deadline in state law … Continue reading →

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2026 primary results: Statewide

Posted on March 4, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

We have to start with this: The Texas Supreme Court suspended a district court’s decision Tuesday to extend voting by two hours in Dallas County and ordered that any votes cast by people who got in line after 7 p.m. … Continue reading →

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The Eastland County hand-counting situation

Posted on March 1, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

The other one to keep an eye on. Eastland County Republicans voted last fall to ditch electronic voting equipment and instead hand count all of their primary ballots. They’ll be using paper poll books to check in voters, and expect … Continue reading →

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The best-laid plans to hand-count ballots often go awry

Posted on February 23, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Oh, Gillespie County. You rascals, you. Gillespie County Republicans have scrapped plans to hand count all of their 2026 primary ballots after failing to recruit enough workers — at least for early voting. The lack of manpower prompted party officials … Continue reading →

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2026 primary early voting Day Three: With additional miscellany

Posted on February 20, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll start with the numbers and then go on to the items of interest. Here are the final daily EV reports for the 2022 and 2018 primaries. Here’s the Day Three EV report, and here are the numbers: Year Mail … Continue reading →

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Dallas and Williamson forced to abandon voting centers for Primary Day

Posted on January 10, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

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 … Continue reading →

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Dallas County Republicans abandon hand count plan

Posted on January 3, 2026 by Charles Kuffner

Some unexpected sanity. After months of laying the groundwork to hand-count thousands of ballots in the March 3 primary, the Dallas County Republican Party announced on Tuesday it has decided not to do so, opting instead to contract with the county elections … Continue reading →

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The Dallas County GOP’s hand-counting debacle

Posted on December 11, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

This is going to be a disaster. Dallas County Republicans say they’re planning to go ahead with hand-counting tens of thousands of Election Day ballots cast in the upcoming March 3 primary after raising more than $400,000 towards the effort. … Continue reading →

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Three ridiculous voting and election stories

Posted on October 11, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

“Silly season” doesn’t begin to cover this stuff. Item 1: Paxton sides with Texas GOP, against secretary of state in lawsuit seeking to close primaries Last month, the Republican Party of Texas sued over a state law that allows anyone … Continue reading →

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Meanwhile, in Gillespie County…

Posted on May 21, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Bless their hearts. The hand count of thousands of Republican primary election ballots in Gillespie County is on track to cost taxpayers more than double the wage costs of the 2020 Republican primary, according to records obtained by Votebeat. Public … Continue reading →

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Gillespie County hand count riddled with errors

Posted on March 21, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Oopsie. An hour after Gillespie County Republican Party Chairman Bruce Campbell declared the hand-counted primary election results completely accurate and certified them as final, he found another discrepancy. “It’s my mistake for not catching that,” he said, sitting in front … Continue reading →

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Initial thoughts on the 2024 primary

Posted on March 7, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Some opening considerations as we peruse the final unofficial voting data. Before you read my words, go check out Stace, Campos, Reform Austin, and the Texas Signal. Here we go: – Final turnout in Harris County was 176,396 for Dems … Continue reading →

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Primary 2024 results: Republican headlines

Posted on March 6, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

It’s going to be a late night and I have a couple of long days ahead of me, so I’m going to do some quick summaries based on what I now know, and will come back later to fill the … Continue reading →

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Gillespie County to hand count primary ballots

Posted on December 22, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Some lessons need to be learned the hard way. When Gillespie County Republicans conduct their primary in March, they will count votes in an ill-advised way: by hand, using scores of volunteers, without any machines. Even if they can pull … Continue reading →

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The looming Kerr County election disaster

Posted on October 30, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

I have five things to say about this. Responsibility for running elections in Kerr County has shifted among three different people in the past two months. The first two officials bailed on the job after a months-long effort by one … Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2024, The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments