Texas Supreme Court Blocks Dallas County Voting Extension
- Voters were unsure of their correct polling locations, leading to long lines and missed voting opportunities.
- The Texas Supreme Court blocked an extension of voting hours, despite the chaos, citing improper notification procedures.
- Candidate Jasmine Crockett accused ongoing gerrymandering and voter suppression, vowing legal action over the disputed votes.
March 3rd was primary election day in Texas, but in Dallas, voters were dealing with something they’ve never experienced before.
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The democratic vote was a challenge this year. People were confused about where to vote, causing them to have to go to multiple locations. It got to a point where the polls had to be extended in Dallas County to 9 pm. However, the Texas Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the Dallas County courts’ extension for the democratic votes on election day, despite all the confusion they faced trying to vote. Dallas County was ordered to separate votes cast by anyone who wasn’t in line to vote by 7 p.m., which is the typical cutoff time.
Voters and poll workers reported and expressed their confusion as the new process restricts where voters can vote on election day. The following statement was issued regarding the extension.
Polls for the Democratic Party have been extended to 9 p.m. due to a court order sought by the Dallas County Democratic Party. The Dallas County Elections Department will work diligently to ensure voting in the Democratic Primary Election is extended for all voters during this time. Any voter not in line by 7 p.m. will be required to vote by Provisional Ballot.Polls for the Republican Party will close at the previously scheduled time of 7 p.m.”
People were not aware that you had to vote in your specific precinct; they showed up at normal county-wide voting centers and were told that they could not vote there, and they had to look up their precinct location and vote there. An additional problem was that the website they were being sent to for that information from the Secretary of State had some bad information on it; some people were sent to locations that were not their home precinct. So they ended up not voting, and this is when the complaints began and grew throughout the day. Not to mention, there were different locations based on whether you were a Democrat or a Republican.
It was around noon when dallas county democratic party chair Kardal Coleman filed the petition for extension. The court order shows Judge Staci Williams approved the extension. Coleman said, “This all was preventable, but this is the result of having a non-joint primary.”
Votes after 7 pm were considered provisional votes, meaning voters had to fill out a provisional ballot because those votes could be appealed, and argued that it was not a substantial disruption to the voting process, saying people had time to vote.
The unfortunate part about this situation is that dallas county democrats saw a historic turnout for the 2026 primaries, showing 39,952 votes during early voting, which is up from the 2024 count of 14,219 and the 2022 count of 18,801. Dallas County’s early voting count finished at 187,929, which gave a significant gap between the Republicans, whose voter turnout was 63, 592.
With this voter confusion, candidate for U.S. Senate Jasmine Crockett says shes filling a lawsuit after the votes in Dallas County that were counted after 7 PM are to be separated and not counted though polls were supposed to be extended to 9 PM via the court order, however the reversal by the supreme court says that the Texas Attorney General Office was not properly notified about the extension.
Crockett also voiced her frustration about what she described as ongoing Gerrymandering and voter suppression, saying that this experience was heartbreaking and emphasizing that no voter should feel disenfranchised.
