The Election Problems They Warned Us About

 Why hand counting of ballots is a bad idea:

Dallas County Judge Staci Williams has signed an order to keep polls open in Dallas until 9 p.m. today — two hours longer than the 7 p.m. closing time.
' That’s after hundreds of Dallas County voters arrived at polling locations where they thought they could vote on primary election day, March 3.

County election department “navigators” informed between 50 and 100 percent of hopeful voters that they could not cast ballots because they were at the wrong location.

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett earlier Tuesday released statement suggesting polling hours stay open as a solution to mass voter confusion in Dallas and Williamson counties, where Republicans chose to hold separate, precinct-based primary voting.

The county was in charge of managing and operating early voting countywide locations, which allowed Democrats and Republicans to vote at any location throughout the county.

The Dallas County Republican Party chose to hold separate primary elections after it abandoned its effort to hand-count all primary election day ballots.

I should explain for those of you who are not from Texas (but Texas wants you anyway!). Voting locations in primaries are customarily available to both parties. You show up, you are asked which ballot you want, and you vote, probably next to someone voting in the other party primary.

(Long ago and far away, when I was a callow lawyer in Austin and before early voting existed (that makes a difference, but don’t worry, I won’t get into those weeds), the Lovely Wife and I went to vote in the Democratic primary, after work. So I was in full lawyer regalia (suit and tie; I haven’t regularly dressed like that in 30 years). A lawyer I knew (he didn’t know me) was handing out campaign material . He stepped forward, looked at me, and withdrew his offered paper, muttering “Republican.” I was so insulted I snatched it from his hand and stepped purposefully to the side where the Democratic primary vote was received. Nowadays the ballot is stored in a computer, so it’s just a matter of getting the sign in code for the party you choose).

Primaries are a party affair, so if a county party wants to hand count ballots, they have to produce hand marked ballots at a separate location. My guess is the county GOP changed its mind too late for the volunteers to all get the message.

Now imagine the mess if Trump got his way and insisted on hand counted ballots. (I’m watching primary results come in from

254 counties tonight. I can’t imagine how many days it would take, in the second most populous state, if all ballots were counted by hand. I’ve been voting for over 50 years, and never cast a hand ballot. And that includes a long period before computers were used.)