Texas Dallas County Polling Hours Extension Request

A pro-voting lawsuit seeking to extend polling hours in Dallas County, Texas, in the 2026 primary.

Background

Kardal Coleman, the Dallas County Democratic Party Chair, filed an emergency petition to extend voting hours in Dallas County, Texas, after a shift to party-specific precinct voting locations caused widespread confusion about where voters were supposed to cast their ballots. While voters in the county could cast ballots at any countywide voting locations during the early voting period and in previous elections, casting ballots on Election Day in this year’s primary was limited to party-specific precinct polling sites. According to the petition, the abrupt change caused tremendous confusion, and heavy traffic from voters searching for correct polling places crashed the Dallas County Election Department’s website. Coleman asked the court to extend polling hours by two additional hours for the Democratic primary to ensure affected voters had an opportunity to cast their ballots.   

Why It Matters

The lawsuit comes in response to hundreds of voters being turned away for showing up at the wrong polling locations after the GOP moved to precinct voting for primary Election Day. Unless polling hours are extended as requested, voters in Dallas will be deprived of their right to vote in the 2026 primary election. 

Latest Updates

• Mar. 9, 2026: The Dallas Democratic Party dismissed the lawsuit.
• Mar. 3, 2026: Attorney General Paxton appealed the district court order to the Texas Supreme Court. The Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked the district court’s order to extend polling hours, ordering the county to separate out votes from people who were not in line by 7 p.m. 

• Mar. 3, 2026: Coleman filed his emergency petition. The district court ordered all polling locations for the Democratic primary in Dallas County to remain open until 9 p.m.