Collin County elections chief reports large turnout, 20,678 ballots hand‑counted with no discrepancies so far

Caleb Roe, Collin County Elections Administrator, told the Commissioners Court that the county increased precincts from 252 to 273 after redistricting and recorded 760,111 registered voters heading into the primary election. He said the county used 36 early‑voting locations and 86 election‑day polling places, a total reached by combining lower‑registration precincts under recent changes in state law.

Roe said 200,338 ballots were cast in the primary: 2.25% by mail, 66.15% during early voting and 31.6% on election day. By party he reported 104,260 Republican ballots (52.04%) and 96,078 Democratic ballots (47.96%), and said turnout rose substantially compared with prior primaries.

The elections administrator described the post‑election hand count audit required under new state rules. "Across all those contests and all of those polling locations and precincts we are will have hand counted 20,678 ballots," Roe said, calling that about 10.32% of ballots cast. On the hand count's progress he said the county was "80 or 90% complete with that process" and reported "0 discrepancies, thus far." Roe said the ballot board, composed of members from both parties, is counting the state‑designated contests and an additional local opposed contest chosen by the county.

Roe outlined operational fixes his office is pursuing after the election, including working with the ballot vendor to reduce misprints and introducing a preprinted box for judge stamps to prevent scanner read errors caused by timing‑mark interference. He also said the office provided extensive training—multiple sessions per day in February—and has taken steps to address voter concerns about marker ink bleeding and DS200 scanner undervote notifications.

Commissioners raised follow‑up questions about an apparent discrepancy between county figures and the state’s reporting website; Roe said the state’s new TEAM system and transmission issues between vendor and state can create temporary mismatches, and that cured, provisional and late mail ballots added after election night can account for differences. He offered to investigate specific mismatches further.

Roe also previewed upcoming elections: a May 2 joint election involving 23 jurisdictions and roughly 300,000 impacted voters, and a separate Richardson special election that the county will administer independently because its ballot (which Roe said contains five bond propositions and 50 charter amendments) was too long to fold onto the standard consolidated ballot.

The court thanked elections staff for their work; Roe said his office will provide additional details on the hand count methodology, staffing and elapsed time upon request and will report final hand‑count results when the audit is complete.