After a primary election season marred with chaos, confusion, and Republican in-fighting, a court has ruled that Dallas County voters will be permitted to use countywide voting during the May 26 runoff election.
Republican precinct chair Barry Wenick filed a petition last week to reinstate precinct-based voting after former county GOP Chair Allen West agreed to reverse course and switch back to countywide voting for upcoming runoffs.
A three-judge panel on the Texas Fifth Court of Appeals rejected his plea on Friday, ruling that they had no jurisdiction to reverse the county contract.
The ruling leaves countywide voting in place for the May 26 runoff after the Dallas County Democrats secured a contract with election officials earlier this month.
The backstory
Earlier this year, the Dallas County GOP decided to change the long-withstanding practice of countywide voting for this year’s primary election to precinct-based voting. Instead of voting anywhere in the county, voters could only cast their ballot at one specific voting site on Election Day.
State law requires both the Republican and Democratic party to agree to a countywide voting system for it to be in effect, meaning the GOP party forced the hand of Democrats to switch to precinct-based voting.
The move caused mass chaos and confusion on Election Day, resulting in thousands of voters being turned away at the polls and thousands of ballots being left uncounted.
Both Democratic US Senate candidates—state Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin) and US Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas)—condemned the move on election night, calling it voter suppression.
“They picked two counties, Dallas County and Williamson County, the home counties of the two folks who were running for Senate on the Democratic side,” Dallas County District 2 Commissioner Andy Sommerman said during a shadow hearing on the matter on April 13 in Dallas.
“Why would they choose to do it in those counties? Because voting can be somewhat like going to a restaurant,” Sommerman added. “You can go to a restaurant 100 times and have a good experience, and then you go and have one terrible meal and you never go back. That was the whole idea behind it—to sour the meal, as it were, of voting in that particular location ahead of the midterm.”
The Dallas County GOP faced extreme backlash for the change following Election Day, and in response, chairman Allen West amended the party’s contract with the elections department to restore countywide voting, allowing residents to cast ballots at any vote center regardless of address during the upcoming runoff.
West claimed if the county continued with precinct-based voting it would “expose the Dallas County Republican Party to a most dangerous course of action,” like lawsuits for intentional voter suppression and disenfranchisement.
However, his reversal angered his fellow Republicans, and on April 15 West resigned.
In response, Wernick filed his petition to switch back to precinct-based voting, claiming West acted illegally when he reversed the change without the party’s approval.
After the court’s decision, Wernick announced in a social media post that he’s weighing next steps, including a possible appeal to the Texas Supreme Court.
Early voting for the May 26 runoff election, which includes the contentious Republican Senate runoff race between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, begins on May 18.
