Change in Voting Rules Causes Confusion in Texas

Voters in two large Texas counties were turned away from polling locations and redirected to different precincts Tuesday after a recent change to primary voting procedures caused widespread confusion and frustration.

In Dallas County, a judge ordered polls to remain open for two additional hours past the scheduled 7 p.m. closing time, citing “voter confusion so severe” that the county election office website crashed, according to the Associated Press. The ruling came in response to a petition filed by the local Democratic Party.

For years, voters in Dallas and Williamson counties had been able to cast ballots at any polling location within their county. However, for this primary election, local Republican parties chose not to participate in the countywide voting system. Under Texas law, both major political parties must agree in order for countywide voting to be used. As a result, voters were required to cast ballots only at their assigned precincts on Tuesday.

Many residents had become accustomed to the countywide system, including on Election Day. The campaign of U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who is running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, said the change caused confusion for voters.

“Both Dallas and Williamson County voters have grown used to countywide voting, including on Election Day,” the campaign said in a statement. “This effort to suppress the vote, to confuse and inconvenience voters, is having the intended effect as people are being turned away from the polls.”

State lawmaker James Talarico, Crockett’s opponent in the Democratic Senate primary, also raised concerns. His campaign said it was “deeply concerned” about reports of voters arriving at polling locations only to be told they needed to go elsewhere.

Part of the confusion stemmed from the fact that voting locations may also vary depending on a voter’s party affiliation, according to Nic Solorzano, a spokesperson for the Dallas County Elections Department.

“We’re seeing a lot of people going to the vote centers they usually go to and not realizing they can’t do that anymore,” Solorzano said. “They have to go to their precinct-based location.”

It was not immediately clear whether the judge’s order extending voting hours applied to all precincts or only those serving Democratic voters.

Some voters encountered the issue firsthand. Tomas Sanchez, a student at Dallas College, went to a campus polling site to vote in the Democratic primary but was told he had to vote at his assigned precinct about six miles away, closer to his neighborhood.

Election officials said the transition back to precinct-based voting required significant adjustments after nearly seven years of countywide voting.

“This is something we were really concerned about,” Solorzano said. “After so many years of voters being able to cast their ballots anywhere in the county, we had to retool our entire operation to return to precinct-based voting on Election Day.”

The elections department said it attempted to notify voters of the change by posting signs, running advertisements, and sending text messages and mailers. On Election Day, former poll workers were stationed outside voting locations with tablets to help direct voters to the correct precinct.

While the county did not immediately track how many voters were turned away, local Democrats said the number appeared significant.

Brenda Allen, executive director of the Dallas Democratic Party, said her office received hundreds of calls from voters of both parties trying to determine their correct precincts. She also noted that congressional district boundaries in the county were redrawn during Texas’ mid-decade redistricting process, and new precinct lines were finalized only in December.

“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.”

Texas was one of three states holding early 2026 midterm elections on Tuesday, along with North Carolina and Arkansas. Voting across those states generally proceeded smoothly, although officials in one rural North Carolina county experienced issues with electronic poll books that delayed the release of statewide results by about an hour.

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