2026 Texas primaries: Late votes cast at 2 WilCo polling places will not be counted

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Texas - The Texas Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the counting of votes cast late at two Williamson County polling locations.

According to the county, this only impacts votes cast by people who arrived in line after 7 p.m.

What they're saying:

Williamson County says that about 20 minutes before polls were set to close Tuesday night, the Texas Civil Rights Project filed a lawsuit against the county and the Democratic and Republican Party chairs sought to extend voting at two polling locations: Georgetown Annex and Northstar Georgetown. 

The Georgetown Annex was a voting location for both Democrats and Republicans, while Northstar Georgetown was just a Democratic Primary polling location.

Both locations experienced long lines on Election Day and at 7 p.m., about 150 to 200 people were still waiting in line to vote, says the county.

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Just before that extension ended, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked the order, saying voting should only happen "as permitted."

Earlier in the day, the county elections office had offered additional equipment to both parties to help reduce wait times; only the Democratic Party accepted the offer.

About 30 minutes after election workers marked the last voter that arrived before 7 p.m. as required by law, the TCRP got a hearing before District Judge Betsy Lambeth.

A new law requires one-hour notice of the hearing to be provided to the Office of the Attorney General. While an attorney from the AG’s Office did attend the hearing, the office objected to the lack of the required notice. 

Everyone else involved consented to extending polling hours until 10 p.m. at the affected locations. Voters casting ballots after 7 p.m. were required to vote provisionally as required by the election code and thus would not be processed Tuesday night.

The extension was granted over the AG's objections and Judge Lambeth also ordered the elections administrator to delay publishing early voting results until 10 p.m. Some results had already been published though as seen by FOX 7 Austin staff, but were taken down, presumably due to the ruling.

By this point, the Republican election judge at the Georgetown Annex had already closed the polling place and arrived at the Elections Office. Judge Lambeth ordered him to return to the polling location until 10 p.m. Democratic polling locations did not close because voters were still waiting in line.

At around 9:45 p.m., the AG's office filed with the Texas Supreme Court seeking to overturn Lambeth's ruling due to the notice issue, says the county.

At 10:11 p.m., the Texas Supreme Court issued an order suspending the effect of Judge Lambeth’s ruling pending a decision by the court.

What's next:

Votes cast by those who arrived in line after 7 p.m. will not be counted unless the Texas Supreme Court rules otherwise.

Dallas County ruling

Big picture view:

The Texas Supreme Court also handed down a ruling regarding voters in Dallas County, which also chose to do precinct-based voting this election over countywide polling.

A Dallas County district judge extended voting hours to 9 p.m. in an order in response to a specific request by the Democratic Party of Dallas County, though the order itself does not make the distinction between parties. 

However, the Texas Supreme Court stepped in just before that extension expired, issuing a temporary stay against the emergency order.

The Supreme Court's order states that votes cast by voters who were not in line by 7 p.m. should be "separated." 

Texas non-joint primaries

The backstory:

The reported issues are happening in North Texas and Central Texas in counties where the elections were split on party lines. The non-joint primaries in some counties, including Dallas and Williamson, require people to cast their votes in locations specific to their parties. 

To know where to vote, voters have to check online to see designated voting locations in their home precincts. According to voters in the affected counties, these online designations have proven inaccurate in some cases.