'Complete Nightmare': Voting Rights Advocates Slam Chaos And Confusion In Texas Primaries

Voters in two Texas counties faced long wait times and had questions about polling locations.

Hundreds of voters in two Texas counties reported being turned away from polling stations and forced to go elsewhere during Tuesday’s primaries. Others experienced major delays, leaving them stuck in long lines for hours. And some are still waiting to see if their ballots will even be counted.

These issues were the byproduct of changes pushed by local Republicans. Previously, voters could cast their ballots at any polling station in both Dallas and Williamson counties, but this year, they had to go to precinct-specific locations to vote in the primaries.

That shift left many people uncertain about where they could vote, and forced them to relocate when they showed up at the wrong place. It also meant that overcrowded polling stations had nowhere to send voters stuck in lengthy queues.

“Voters were expecting to take an hour to vote, and having to leave without casting a ballot because of the absurd wait time. There was confusion about what precinct folks were in, because redistricting shuffled everything,” Emily Eby French, an attorney for Common Cause Texas, told HuffPost. “It was just a complete nightmare.”

In one instance, Eby French said a voter called Common Cause’s primary day hotline and reported being turned away from their first polling station and sent to a second. After waiting at the second location, the voter was then told that the first location was actually the correct one.