After thousands of people showed up at the wrong place to vote in the March primary, Dallas County voters can again choose any polling site in the county to cast ballots in today’s runoff.
The Dallas County GOP forced the county to move to precinct-based voting for Election Day in March as part of a plan to hand-count its ballots for the primary.
The plan — which was motivated by conspiracy theories about the accuracy of voting machines — was abandoned when it proved too labor-intensive and costly. Still, voters nonetheless had to go to their assigned precincts to cast ballots during the March election.
The change proved chaotic. After years of countywide voting, many voters went to the wrong polling sites. Democrats went to court in pursuit of extended voting hours, which were granted but then revoked when the state’s top court weighed in.
Then-Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Allen West announced they would return to countywide voting in mid-March. That angered some in his party, who sued to try to maintain precinct-level voting. Last month, West resigned amid the controversy.