A legal expert flagged what she described as "flat-out voter suppression" that took place during the Texas primary election.
The election featured multiple high-profile races, like the Texas Senate race between Democrats Rep. Jasmie Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico, and Republicans Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. It was the first election under the state's new election laws, which changed the designated polling places for many voters.
A lower-court judge ruled that polling places should remain open for an additional two hours due to the confusion. The Texas Supreme Court overruled the lower court and ordered that any ballots turned in after the deadline be separated.
Joyce Vance, a law professor at the University of Alabama, argued in a new Substack essay that voters were denied their right to vote.
"On Tuesday in Texas, Democratic voters in Dallas and Williamson Counties, Texas, had their work cut out for them if they wanted to vote," Vance wrote. "They had to figure out, on the day of, where their polling places were."
"That’s because the local Republican parties backed out of the years-long tradition of holding joint primaries, and that information wasn’t communicated widely," she added. "One voter reported showing up at his polling place and being sent somewhere else, a 15-minute drive away, only to be told to return to the original location. This is just flat-out voter suppression— designed to deny people their right to vote."
