Dallas County Republicans to vote on paper, hand-count ballots for 2026 Primary Election
Changes coming to Dallas County voting process for 2026
For the March primary, Republicans will have about 100 fewer polling locations. They will also vote on paper ballots that will be counted by hand.
DALLAS - Dallas County Republican voters will notice a change in the voting process for the 2026 Primary Election in March.
What we know:
For the first time in many years, the Democratic and Republican parties in Dallas County will not have a joint primary election.
Instead, for the March primary, Republicans will have about 100 fewer polling locations. They will also vote on paper ballots that will be counted by hand.
Under the rules, parties control the primaries. While it has been standard for a while that parties have joint elections, they do not have to.
The changes only apply to election day, not early voting, which is controlled by the county.
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Statewide polling shows Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton with a narrow lead over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn for the Republican Senate nomination, while U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett leads among likely Democratic candidates.
What they're saying:
Dallas County GOP Chair Allen West said the party wants to try something different to see if they can make the process better.
"I think when you consider Albert Einstein, when he said the pure definition of insanity is to continue to do the exact same thing and think you're going to get different results. And so why would we not want to look at some other course of action? And that's what we came up with. To say, let's go back and see," West said.
While he did not allege any voter fraud, he cited failures with electronic voting. An electronic pollbook gave thousands of Dallas County voters the wrong ballot during the 2024 presidential election.
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"Well, it’s not just the Dallas County GOP. I think that all voters in Dallas County should be very concerned with some of the failures and flaws and the shortcomings they’ve seen in the electronic voting system that we have here," he said.
West said he’s not concerned about the process being slower.
"When you look around and you see people that are still taking in results from elections a week after the election is over, I don’t see what people are concerned about. And first of all, I fear God and I dread not," he said. "We are providing an alternative for people to look at and people to study. And hopefully there will not be people that try to create obstacles to this happening because we’re doing everything according to Texas election code and law."
Local perspective:
Dallas County Elections Administrator Paul Adams said his office has less than 80 days to prepare for the change, which is all legal. He’s urging both parties to sign their primary contracts by Saturday.
"We have a lot to prepare for because we are basically running two separate elections at the same time," he said.
Dallas County will be the largest in the country to hand-count ballots on election day.
Collin County moved to a full paper ballot system for the November election, which some people blamed for long lines and delays.
Collin County voters wait in long lines on election day
Some voters in Collin County were met with long lines at their polling sites. The county switched to paper ballots this year, though officials have not said whether that’s what was causing the lines.
The Source: The information in this story comes from a Dallas County Commissioner's Court meeting and an interview with Dallas County GOP Chair Allen West.