Texas appeals court won’t block GOP-led county from changing voting maps after primary

A Texas appeals court Thursday denied an emergency effort to stop Galveston County from using new voting districts in the November election, allowing the GOP-led county’s post-primary map change to move forward for now as the general election approaches.

The 14th Court of Appeals rejected a petition from pro-voting plaintiffs who asked the court to block Galveston County from implementing district boundaries adopted after the March 2026 primaries.

The plaintiffs argued that county officials should not be allowed to hold primary elections under one set of district lines and then use different boundaries for the general election just months later.

The appeals court did not rule that Galveston County’s map change is legal.

Instead, it denied the plaintiffs’ request for a writ of mandamus — a court order requiring a public official to carry out a clear legal duty — because the plaintiffs had not met the extraordinarily high legal standard required for that relief.

“Relators have not met their burden of proof that no disputed facts exist and the duty they seek to compel is clear,” the court wrote. “Accordingly, we deny relator’s petition for writ of mandamus.”

Under Texas election law, both the state Supreme Court and courts of appeals can issue writs of mandamus to compel officials to perform duties required by law in connection with an election. But the 14th Court of Appeals held that the plaintiffs had not shown that the county officials’ legal duty was sufficiently clear or that there were no disputed factual questions.

Thursday’s ruling comes less than a week after the Texas Supreme Court denied the same plaintiffs’ emergency petition without reaching the merits, telling them the matter should first be presented to a lower court.

The latest decision marks another procedural setback for the pro-voting challengers and leaves Galveston County’s new map on track for use in November — at least for now.