In some voting locations where a party's appointed polling judge didn't show up, election officials allowed the other party's judge to operate both parties' voting machines in an effort to keep the polling place running.
Several voting locations throughout the state were unable to open Tuesday during the primary election because of election staff shortages, causing some to open later in the day and others to shut down completely.
"Although we don’t know all the reasons why there was an unusual shortage today, we do know that bills like Senate Bill 1 — which imposed harsh new criminal penalties on poll workers and harsh new restrictions on what they could do in the polling place — only serve to deter poll workers from the important work they do in administering our elections and safeguarding our right to vote," Slattery said duringTen polling locations in Dallas were completely shut down because of the staffing...
Polling judges preside over voting locations to ensure that the election process is administered fairly and lawfully. Since the parties appoint their own polling judges and staff members, Garcia said Tarrant County election officials couldn’t directly control how many party election judges were lined up for Tuesday’s primary.
The locations with vacancies were ones that typically saw a low turnout for the party with the vacancy, he said. For instance, one location that typically sees a larger Republican voter turnout and had only a dozen or so Democratic voters last year was missing its Democratic election judge Tuesday, he said.