We smelled trouble when it became apparent that the Dallas County GOP was going to push forward with its knuckleheaded plan to have a separate primary election this year. But even our well-exercised imagination failed to envision just how bad election day would turn out.
Our newsroom colleagues captured the chaos: Hundreds of voters who had to be rerouted because they had gone to their usual voting place and not their assigned precinct. Citizens who ping-ponged from one to a second to even a third location. A Secretary of State website that sent voters to the wrong place because it was using outdated precinct maps.
For voters who stuck it out and rushed to the polls after work, long lines awaited them at many voting sites. The Dallas County Democratic Party asked for an extension, a local judge granted it, and then the Texas Supreme Court put a kibosh on that. The provisional ballots cast by voters after 7 p.m. would not be counted.
We expected election day to be a nail-biter, and it was, but for all the wrong reasons.
The public explanation offered by Allen West, chair of the Dallas County Republican Party, was that having its primary separate from the Democratic one would reduce “fraudulent activity.” He didn’t cite any evidence, but why would he? We’re not a country that hungers for facts anymore. We prefer vibes and impressions that align with whatever we were already thinking.