Texas GOP Counties Drop Plans to Hand-Count Ballots in March Primaries

By Emmanuel Bobby

Texas Republicans in two counties have abandoned efforts to hand-count ballots in their March primary elections, citing logistical, financial and legal concerns.

The Dallas County Republican Party said it scrapped its plan after struggling to recruit enough volunteers and stay within budget. Meanwhile, the Hays County Republican Party said it encountered compliance issues related to federal voting requirements.

Republicans in both counties will now rely on ballot-counting machines, as in previous elections, for the March 3 primary, which includes races for the U.S. Senate, the House of Representatives, governor and other down-ballot offices.

In Texas, political parties—not local governments—administer primary elections. This system gives party officials broad authority over election operations. Typically, Democrats and Republicans coordinate their primaries and rely on county election offices to run them, allowing costs to be reimbursed by the Texas secretary of state.

Last year, Republicans in at least six Texas counties explored or announced plans to hand-count ballots. Doing so would have required them to conduct elections separately from Democrats and manage vote counting at the precinct level.

Dallas County Republicans, in the state’s second-most populous county, had pledged to recruit more than 3,000 volunteers to hand-count ballots. By year’s end, however, they had secured only about 1,300 to 1,500 volunteers, according to county GOP Chairman Allen West, a former Florida congressman.

West said the length of the ballot compounded staffing challenges and raised concerns about violating state law, which requires ballots to be counted and reported within 24 hours.

“If you’re not able to get those ballots counted on time and submitted, it’s a second-degree misdemeanor,” West said. “We don’t want to put people in that position.”

Financing was another obstacle. The party raised roughly $500,000 for the effort but estimated it would need an additional $150,000. West said donors will now be offered refunds.

In Hays County, Republicans said they were unable to secure enough voting machines for voters with disabilities and lacked access to necessary voting data to properly organize precincts.

“Proceeding without these elements would have placed our party and voters at significant legal, financial and operational risk, and could have undermined the very integrity we have been striving to defend,” county GOP Chairwoman Michelle M. López wrote in a letter dated Dec. 22.

Election experts have long warned that hand-counting ballots can be slow, expensive and prone to error. Still, the approach has been promoted by President Donald Trump and some Republican activists, often alongside unsubstantiated claims about fraud involving voting machines.

Both López and West told supporters the idea could be revisited in the future. West said the party may consider hand-counting again in 2028, noting that preliminary groundwork has already been done.

Elsewhere in Texas, Republican activists said Denton County rejected the idea of hand-counting ballots for March. However, Republicans in Gillespie and Eastland counties plan to proceed with hand counts, according to local party officials.

“I am working on ordering ballots, confirming election judges and alternates, and continuing to train hand counters,” Eastland County GOP Chair Robin Hayes said in an email.

Republican activist Beverly Foley, who has advocated for hand-counting, said federal requirements mandating at least one accessible voting machine at every polling location have proven to be a major hurdle.

Texas law requires primaries that use hand counting to be conducted at the precinct level, creating additional pressure on counties to secure enough machines.

“All of a sudden, when Democrats are running their election over here and Republicans are running theirs over there,” Foley said, “there are only so many machines available.”