Voters headed to the polls for the March 3 primary elections.
After a chaotic election day that saw some confusion about where voters were supposed to cast their ballots, at the top of the ballot, unofficial results showed Attorney General Ken Paxton and incumbent John Cornyn headed to a runoff for the Republican Party’s nomination for Senate.
On the Democratic side, State Rep. James Talarico beat Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett for their party’s nomination for Senate.
Locally, in unofficial results, Kevin Burge is headed to a runoff against TJ Ware for the Democratic nomination in U.S. House District 24. The winner will face incumbent Republican Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne, who ran unopposed in her primary.
The primary runoff elections will be May 26.
Incumbent Morgan Meyer beat challenger Sanjay Narayan for the Republican nomination for Texas House District 108. per unofficial results. Meyer will face Democrat Allison Mitchell in November, who ran unopposed.
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For Dallas County District Attorney, Amber Givens, who’d resigned from her former position as a Dallas County District Judge to run for DA, beat incumbent John Creuzot.
For Dallas County Commissioner for Precinct 2, Republican Berry Wernick beat Blake W. Clemens for the Republican nomination, according to unofficial results. Wernick will go on to face incumbent Democrat Andy Sommerman.
Ahead of the results, there was some legal back-and-forth about keeping polling locations open until 9 p.m. for Democrats after the county party received a court order allowing it.
After the lower court granted the court order from the county Democratic Party, the Supreme Court of Texas issued a stay of that order.
The Supreme Court of Texas added that votes cast by voters who were not in line to vote at 7 p.m. should be separated.
The Dallas County Democratic Party has since dismissed its lawsuit over the March primary provisional ballots, per a March 9 filing, saying the party determined “the Texas Supreme Court is no longer a viable forum for a fair application of the law.”
The legal back-and-forth came amid confusion among some voters about where they were supposed to vote following the new requirement that voters cast their ballot at their assigned precinct. Previously, including during the early voting period, residents were able to vote at any polling place in Dallas County.
Shannon Fitzgerald, who was assigned to help direct voters at University Park United Methodist Church, estimated about 500 people turned up at the location to vote as of 1:30 p.m. March 3, but of those, about 200 had to be redirected. By 5:45, the number of turned away voters had grown to 327.
Sanjay Narayan, a candidate for Texas House District 108, said from outside the polling place that the new process should have been better communicated to voters.
“I know that there’s been frustration with it,” he said. “I think there has to be a little bit more lead time and education so voters don’t get turned around, especially because they’re so familiar coming to a single location.”
Among the turned away voters was Kendall Cohoe, who last voted at University Park United Methodist Church, but planned to detour to her assigned precinct. “It’s an inconvenience,” she said.
At Northaven United Methodist Church in Preston Hollow, a precinct official also said some voters there also had to be redirected to their assigned precinct.
Editor Sarah Hodges contributed reporting to this article.
Republican primary results
Democratic primary results
