Denton County public commenters press court on home-precinct election rule

Jane Scholes, a Robeson Ranch resident, used the court’s public-comment period to criticize Denton County’s election-day “home precinct” voting rule and urged the court to consider countywide election-day voting. "Republican voters were turned away from at least 1 polling location 2 and a half times as often as Democrats on November 4," she said, adding that more than "6,200 redirected voters" were recorded and that nearly two-thirds of redirected voters on May 4 had not voted in a party primary.

Scholes said the redirected voters include "unaffiliated voters" — young people, recent movers and less politically engaged residents — and described the rule as "outdated, harmful, and unnecessary," arguing that forcing voters to go to a home precinct on election day risks disenfranchisement.

Melinda Preston, chair of the Denton County Republican Party, responded during the same public-comment period that some of the issues stemmed from a Secretary of State software problem associated with a new program that "accidentally sent people from the wrong precincts." She thanked county elections staff for work documenting the issue and for the reliability of the county’s voting system, and urged the court to "stay with what we've got," defending a mix of early voting centers and neighborhood precincts as necessary to serve voters without transportation or mobility options.

The court did not take immediate policy action on the comments during the Dec. 16 session. Members acknowledged the reports from speakers and had earlier congratulated elections staff on the administration of recent elections; the elections office also presented maps and a later agenda item addressed precinct boundary adjustments required by state congressional redistricting.