Leaders of the Dallas County Republican Party voted this week to hand-count all ballots cast for the March 3 primary.
Party Chairman Allen West said on Wednesday that he and members of their Executive Committee have been concerned for years about the systems the county uses.
He cited an error that was found in tabulation machines before last year’s election, which was corrected, among other issues.
Hand-counting ballots could be costly
Conducting a hand count could be cost-prohibitive, which is why West said the party hasn’t made a final decision yet.
“We’re looking at capping this at $500,000. If it goes over the $500,000, we believe that is unfeasible,” said West. “So, we’re putting constraints on ourselves. Again, the executive committee said, ‘let’s try.’ I think that’s an important thing.”
A hand count can be expensive if the party has to hire people to count the ballots, instead of having them tabulated by machines.
West said they hope to attract high school seniors and college students who would volunteer. Regardless, as many as 50,000 ballots will have to be counted.
State law requires the counting to be completed within 24 hours
Various studies have shown that conducting a hand count is not only more expensive but also more time-consuming, and results in more mistakes than counting by machines.
In Gillespie County, in rural Texas, last year, the Republican party hand-counted its ballots and finished within the time required, but there were reportedly a variety of mistakes with the counting that had to be corrected during the process.
When asked what systems will be implemented to detect mistakes and prevent fraud, West said, “You still have the people who are there in the county, you have supervisors who are there. You have cameras that are watching everything, so it is a transparent process. So, you put in systems of checks and balances to make sure we can do our best.”
He said the party’s task force reached out to Gillespie County’s Republican Party to hear the lessons they learned by counting ballots by hand.
State law allows the parties to hand-count ballots during primaries only, not general elections.
West said if they go forward with the hand count, it will only be for the ballots cast on election day and not for those cast during early voting. Those ballots will still be counted by machines.
Dallas County Democrats say party will count votes with machines
Dallas County Democratic Party Chairman Kardal Coleman told CBS News Texas their party will still use machines to count their votes cast on election day. He said the machines are accurate.
West said if the Republican Party decides against hand-counting ballots cast on election day, it may just count the mail-in absentee ballots instead. The Travis County GOP did that last year, but a party spokesman said leaders there have not yet decided whether they will do the same for next year’s primary.
In addition, the Dallas County Republican Party has decided it will conduct a separate primary on election day from the Democratic Party. That’s a change from past years.
Coleman said it will cost more for both parties to conduct the primary on election day. West said the party also chose to require voters to cast their ballots at their assigned neighborhood precincts on election day, but county-wide voting will still be in place during early voting.
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