Following a year of partisan fights, Election Day runs smoothly across Texas

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

---

This coverage is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting access. Sign up for Votebeat Texas’ free newsletters here.

After months of anticipation and partisan fights over election administration, voting in Texas went relatively smoothly on Election Day, with election officials reporting no major disruptions.

More than 9 million Texans cast ballots early in person or by mail, roughly half of the state’s 18.6 million registered voters. Two million moreo Texans cast ballots on Election Day, according to unofficial totals. The figure doesn’t yet surpass the 11.3 million voters who cast ballots in 2020.

As in every election, there were scattered problems or glitches.

Early Tuesday, vandals used spray paint to inscribe pro-Palestinian messages on a polling location in Tarrant County, but the incident didn’t affect the county’s ability to use the location for voting. In Dallas and Bexar counties, technical problems with equipment were reported and resolved early in the day.

Across the state, voters with disabilities struggled to find signs directing them to curbside voting, according to the Texas Civil Rights Project, a nonprofit voter advocacy group that ran an election protection hotline. Other voters said some poll workers weren’t familiar with a new law allowing voters with disabilities to move to the front of the line.

Other advocacy groups said they’ll continue to monitor for issues that may arise in the coming weeks.

“There’s a lot that we won’t find out about until later, like any problems inside the polling location, any potential issues with poll watchers. There’s still a million steps in the election process to come,” said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas. “We’ll be watching that all the ballots that should be counted are counted, and that there’s a smooth certification process.”

First presidential election under new law

The mostly quiet Election Day came after a series of pitched partisan battles over how elections should be conducted in Texas.

This is the first presidential election since Gov. Greg Abbott signed a sweeping new election law, known as SB 1, in 2021. The law changed how people cast ballots by mail, expanded poll watchers’ access, and mandated that security measures such as video surveillance be added to the ballot counting process. Voting rights groups sued the state over dozens of the law’s provisions. A federal judge has already struck down some of them, including a provision restricting voter assistance.

After two of the state’s largest counties, both Democratic-leaning, began efforts to send voter registration applications to residents, top state Republicans pushed back. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Travis County, arguing the effort could lead to ineligible voters, including noncitizens, to register to vote.

Over the weekend, after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would be sending poll observers to various states including Texas, Paxton filed a lawsuit against the agency. He argued that such monitors are not allowed inside Texas polling locations. Paxton withdrew the request after the federal agency agreed that the monitors would remain outside of the polling location and at least 100 feet away. The monitors were sent to Atascosa, Bexar, Dallas, Frio, Harris, Hays, Palo Pinto, and Waller counties.

A tense early voting period

During the state’s early voting period, election officials found themselves pushing back against bad information online and contending with at least one violent incident at the polls.

During the first week of early voting, a man was arrested and charged with a felony after he punched a poll worker in Bexar County, home to San Antonio. The poll worker had asked the voter to remove his hat, which showed support for former President Donald Trump. Wearing clothing showing support for a candidate or measure inside a Texas polling location is against the law.

Also during early voting, a video of a Tarrant County man who claimed a voting machine had flipped his choice for president went viral. He claimed he wanted to vote for Donald Trump, but when he double checked his printed ballot, it showed he’d voted for Kamala Harris.

Tarrant County officials said the man had made a mistake while making his choices. His ballot was spoiled so it wouldn’t be tabulated, and he was permitted to cast another ballot.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said there were no errors to correct in that case, and the machines were not flipping votes. “In Tarrant County, we have only had one person say their vote was flipped out of 591,885 votes cast to date,” he said.

Disclosure: Common Cause has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Natalia Contreras is a reporter for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org.