Texas Democrats Hit Long Lines and Tech Problems in 2022's First Primary

[Nevilledog]

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The Daily Beast
@thedailybeast
At some sites, Republicans walked right in to vote while Democrats in separate lines and using separate machines were stuck waiting

thedailybeast.com
Texas Democrats Hit Long Lines and Tech Problems in 2022’s First Primary
At some sites, Republicans walked right in to vote while Democrats in separate lines and using separate machines were stuck waiting.
8:40 AM · Mar 2, 2022

https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-democrats-hit-long-lines-and-tech-problems-in-2022s-first-primary

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HOUSTON—As voters in Texas’ most populous county headed to their polling places for Tuesday’s primary election, they were met with seas of colorful campaign signs, hopeful candidates and electioneers delivering last-minute stump speeches.

Campaign supporters filled parking lots, sometimes playing music and handing out treats to rile up attendees. Politicos shook hands and waved posters all around.

But amid all the political glamor, voters at some polling sites were also met with long lines and malfunctioning voting machines. And those issues came on top of already significant struggles with SB 1, a voting bill signed into law last year that heightened ID requirements for mail-in voters, banned drive-through voting and banned 24-hour voting sites, which the county used in 2020.

The problems started early. When voting began at 7 a.m., the county’s website mapping out nearby polling places for individuals crashed. In an effort to quickly mitigate the issue, Harris County Elections pointed voters to a written list of its polling sites, requiring early-morning voters to parse through a catalog of 375 different locations. Harris County allows voters to vote at any location within county limits.

Once voters arrived at a polling location, they faced dramatically mixed experiences with wait times and access. While some locations offered quick turnarounds, others were bogged down with hefty wait-times, sometimes spanning 30 to 45 minutes.

*snip*

[SoCalDavidS]

1. They Don't Even Have To Cheat

But I guess they just want to make certain that TX stays solid Red.

[Chainfire]

2. Perfect, the plan is working...

[The Grand Illuminist]

3. It is things like this that makes me firmly believe

that political and social ideology, affiliation and party should be federally protected classes.

[CrispyQ]

4. I have never heard of separate lines at the polls, much less based on party.

Where is the DOJ on this? Some of the positions being voted on were federal positions.

In the meantime...

Declining share of Americans see Trump as primarily responsible for Jan. 6
BY REBECCA BEITSCH - 02/08/22

https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/593349-declining-share-of-americans-see-trump-as-bearing-a-lot-of

snip...

The number of Republicans who say Trump bears no responsibility at all for the attack grew from 46 percent to 57 percent over the last year, while the share of Democrats who see Trump as having "a lot" of responsibility for the attack dropped from 81 percent to 70 percent.

The survey also found the public largely divided over how much attention should be paid to the Jan. 6 attack and its impacts, with roughly a third of those surveyed responding that too much, too little and the right amount of attention has been given to reviewing the day.

The poll was conducted between Jan. 10 and Jan. 17 among 5,128 U.S. adults. It has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

This trend will continue as long as it looks like our side is doing nothing. I hope the hearings start soon enough before the elections, & are dramatic enough to generate the enthusiasm that we are losing daily.

[Deminpenn]

5. Texas has closed a closed primary,

meaning only Dems can vote for Dems and only Rs for Rs. If a poll is using only 1 set of voting machines, the machine has to be set differently depending on the party registration of the voter each time. It can take a bit of time if, for example, the voting machine has to be set/re-set with a cartridge.

In PA, for those precincts/counties not using paper ballots, there's only one set of voting machines and those are set each time for each voter. TX apparently found it easier to have seperate voting machines for each party, but both approaches work.

In a relatively Dem-heavy county like Harris, not surprised that there'd be more Dem voters out than Rs thus the difference in wait times.

[MagickMuffin]

7. Texas is an Open Primary not closed

I could've voted for any republicon if I wanted to but I only vote for the Democrats.

There are separate lines as you stated.


I have been a precinct chair and this is how Texas Primaries work.

They should not be held in the same room if it was as small as where I voted yesterday. I had an election worker tell me to place my ballot in the wrong tally machine. I had to ask her if it was the republicon machine and she said it was and I let her know I was a Democrats and I want my vote to count.

[Deminpenn]

10. Thought I saw something that it was a closed primary,

but obviously it's not.

[hurl]

12. It sort of is...

You can vote in only one party's primary in a specific election. For example, I voted in the Democratic primary, so I am not eligible to also vote in the Republican primary this same election cycle. However, I could vote in the Republican primary next cyce, so it's open in that sense. We don't have party registration in Texas. You just tell the poll worker which party's ballot you want.

In my county, you just get a printed ballot that is specific to one party or the other, and the same machine processes either party's ballots. But I'm in a solidly red county, so they make it pretty easy here.

[TheRealNorth]

8. Separate but Equal

[CrispyQ]

9. I guess I'm missing something.

If these are electronic voting machines, why doesn't the software ask the voter which ballot they want to vote, and then display the correct ballot when the voter chooses? I don't get what has to be reset. And if they're paper ballots, I don't see the purpose of two different lines. What has to be reset for a paper ballot? And what do they do with independents & non-affiliated voters?

We need standardized voting laws for the entire country. It's not democratic that it's easier to vote in Colorado than in Texas. That basically means that my voice weighs more than people in Texas.

[Deminpenn]

11. Can't speak for TX, only PA

I'm not sure how many counties in PA are now using paper ballots, but those are easy. There's a Dem ballot, an R ballot and one for non-affiliated voters that only has ballot questions. Once you go into vote, the election board announces D/R/unaffiliated and the cleck hands you the correct ballot that you fill out, then feed into the scanner and you're done.

For counties that still have voting machines, it depends on what kind you have. The ones I worked with just a had a button in the back to press for R/D/I, very easy. The ones I voted on before my county switched back to paper ballots had to be set up and changed using a supervisors cartridge.

[Takket]

6. So the system functioned EXACTLY as it was designed to. Good to know.