Judge orders some Texas polls to remain open after start-up delays
A handful of polling locations in Texas will stay open an extra hour Tuesday after two civil liberties groups successfully sued the county covering Houston over delays in voting start times at nine stations. Texas Civil Rights Project and the Texas Organizing Project on Tuesday filed the lawsuit, which resulted in a court order stipulating that the locations be staffed until 8 p.m. CST, after they failed to be ready by 7 a.m., according to the Texas Tribune.
Sign-in and voting machines also reportedly were not working in the bright blue county. Texas voters are deciding one of the most closely watched races of the 2018 midterm elections: Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's contest against Democratic fundraising-powerhouse Beto O'Rourke. "If the relief requested by Plaintiffs is not granted, Plaintiffs will suffer imminent and irreparable harm to their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights and statutory rights under Sections 41.031 and 273.081 of the Texas Election Code," Harris County District Court Judge Fredericka Phillips ordered Tuesday.
Texas was not the only state to extend voting hours this 2018 midterm cycle. Three precincts in Gwinnett County, Ga., remained open following technical issues experienced throughout the day, including at the Annistown Elementary School precinct, which is expected to close at 9:25 p.m. EST. Georgia voters are weighing in on the tight gubernatorial race between Republican Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams. Abrams could become the country's first black woman governor. Polling locations in Monroe County, Ind., also stayed open for an additional 60 minutes until 7 p.m. EST Tuesday in accordance with a state circuit judge's order issued after some stations ran out of ballots due to unexpectedly high turnout. Monroe County has trended Democratic in recent years, an important district for Democratic incumbent Sen. Joe Donnelly to win to succeed in beating Republican challenger Mike Braun. "Voter turnout in Monroe County surpassed the total number of voters in the 2014 midterm election well before noon today," William Ellis, a Republican serving on the Monroe County Election Board, told the Bloomington Herald-Times.
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