The Dallas County Republican Party has abandoned its effort to hand-count all voter ballots in the upcoming primary election — at least for now.
Party chair Allen West released a statement Tuesday that said the months-long initiative faced financial reimbursement, logistical and personnel challenges.
He said it was too risky to take a chance with the contract agreement deadline on Wednesday, Dec. 31.
"There's some people that are upset about it, but I think that without a doubt, when you evaluate the facts that are there, people understand," he said.
Some party members had expressed concern about those issues several months ago.
County election department staff had said then that while hand-counting ballots is not impossible, it does come with some difficulties — like the ones the party has encountered.
West said staffing was the biggest issue.
"The most important thing was, we're 63 days out from the election, March the third, and we have about 1,300 to 1,500 people to sign up to be counters," he said. "We need 3,000 to 3,300. And you just can't take that chance or that risk of signing the contract if you don't hit that number."
West said that could have put election judges in a very bad legal positon that "could result in a second degree misdemeanor for them if they're not able to get those results tabulated and submitted."
"I don't want to put the organization and the people that make up the organization in a very bad situation," he said.
Extra tables and chairs beyond what the county provides and printing ballots with many county races, plus 10 new state party initiatives, was adding up.
Clerks required for secure counting would also have to be be paid.
The Texas Secretary of State office reimbursement cap for Dallas County is slightly over $1 million for all participants, including the Democratic Party.
West said the party possibly could not recoup all its expenses.
"Our team did an incredible job of getting to that $500,000 funds raised," he said. "But you start to look at, again, and one of the things we brought up, the financial reimbursements that will come back to us, it doesn't match what we would have to put out in order to make this happen."
The lessons learned, he added, "set the conditions for us to attempt to do this in 2028."
The party voted in September to revert to counting voter ballots by hand, pending funding and manpower.
The proposition to hand-count ballots failed by one vote in the last election cycle.
Democratic Party chair Kardal Coleman had said in September that counting voter ballots by hand is archaic, faulty and confuses voters.
New county elections administrator Paul Adams had said then that he would prioritize the possibility of holding separate primary elections, which hand-counting ballots could have caused.
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