On Tuesday, voters in two of Texas’s largest counties faced significant hurdles at polling stations, as a shift in primary election procedures led to widespread confusion and exasperation.
In Dallas County, a judge intervened to extend voting hours by two hours beyond the usual 7 p.m. closing time. The decision came after “extreme voter confusion” resulted in the crash of the county election office’s website. This extension was granted following a petition by the local Democratic Party in the predominantly Democratic county.
Historically, voters in Dallas and Williamson counties enjoyed the convenience of casting their votes at any polling location within their county. However, for this primary election, local Republican parties decided against continuing the countywide voting system. According to state law, both major political parties must consent to this system for it to be implemented.
Consequently, voters on Tuesday were required to vote solely at their designated precincts.
The Democratic campaigns for the U.S. Senate primary candidates criticized the impact of this change, urging for an extension of polling hours to accommodate those affected.
“Voters in both Dallas and Williamson counties have become accustomed to countywide voting, even on election day,” stated the campaign for U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett. “This deliberate attempt to suppress the vote, causing confusion and inconvenience, is working as intended, as voters are being turned away from the polls.”
The campaign of James Talarico, a state lawmaker, said it was “deeply concerned” about the reports of voters showing up at polling locations and being sent elsewhere.
Adding to the confusion was the fact that voting locations also might be specific to someone’s party affiliation, said Nic Solorzano, a spokesperson for the Dallas County Elections Department.
“We’re seeing a lot of people that are going to their vote centers that they usually go to … and not realizing they can’t do that anymore. They have to go to their precinct-based location,” he said.
The Dallas extension applied only to Democratic voting precincts. Voting also was extended for an hour in El Paso County after problems with voter check-in systems earlier in the day. In Williamson County, which includes suburbs north of Austin, Democrats were unsuccessful in extending voting hours. A recording at the election office said “the polls are now closed” after the scheduled end time.
Texas was one of three states kicking off the 2026 midterm elections Tuesday, along with North Carolina and Arkansas. Voting otherwise went fairly smoothly, except for a problem with electronic poll books in one rural North Carolina county that prompted the state elections board to delay the release of statewide results by an hour.
Tomas Sanchez, a student at Dallas College, was among those who showed up at a voting location on campus to cast his ballot in Texas’ Democratic primary. But he was under a “mistaken impression” and told that he needed to vote at his assigned precinct, a location about 6 miles (about 10 kilometers) away and closer to his neighborhood.
“This is something that we were really concerned about, honestly,” Solorzano said. He added that after nearly seven years of voters being able to cast their ballots anywhere in the county, “then we kind of had to retool our entire operation to go back to precinct-based voting for Election Day.”
The county elections department has been putting up signs, running ads and sending text messages and mailers to make people aware of the change. On Election Day former poll workers were stationed outside voting locations with tablets to help people find the correct place to cast their ballot.
While Solorzano said his department was not keeping track of how many people were been turned away, local Democrats said the number was significant.
Brenda Allen, executive director of the Dallas Democratic Party, said her offices were swamped by hundreds of calls from voters of both parties trying to find their precincts. She noted that congressional districts in the county also were remapped in Texas’ mid-decade redistricting and that new precinct lines were only finalized in December, leaving little time to inform voters.
“Lots of reports of people being turned away, hundreds of people unable to vote. Both parties are affected by this,” Allen said. “It’s not great.”
In Williamson County, the local Democratic Party headquarters was slammed by calls, executive director Madison Dickinson said.
“We’re having significant problems with the precinct-level voting,” she said, adding that, like in Dallas, even Republicans were confused by the change and were calling the Democratic Party for help.
Republicans were less vocal about the changes online, although the Dallas County Republican Party posted a link showing voters where to find their assigned polling places. The Williamson County Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment.
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Associated Press writer John Hanna contributed.
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