Dallas County Republicans will return to machine ballot counting during the next March primary. They aimed to do a hand count for election day ballots, but could not find enough workers or volunteers to make it happen. In a Facebook post on the party’s page, Chair Lt. Col. Allen West announced that they will no longer pursue a hand recount and will instead contract with the county government to count by machine. In short, they could not recruit the 3,000 workers and volunteers they needed. “We are currently tapped out at approximately 1,300–1,500 individuals for hand counting. With only 63 days until the election, that number is woefully short of what is required. The greatest risk would be to continue without having trained, qualified, and ready counters, which would place our election judges in an untenable legal position,” wrote chair West. The Dallas GOP was going to be the largest organization in the country to try this effort. This ends an experiment the state party was watching to possibly expand statewide in the years ahead, according to Texas GOP Chair Abraham George. “So this is an opportunity for us to learn what mistakes we make, if we make any, and also to see if it is possible, how much it’s going to cost us at the end of the day, you know, who can do it, and how many volunteers we need,” Chair George said in a recent interview for NBC DFW’s Sunday public affairs show, Lone Star Politics. “I think when you elect clowns, you should expect circuses,” said Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder in an interview. He argued the hand-count effort was a fool’s errand to begin with. “We’re going to use modern technology because it is the year 2025, and that’s how we will operate. We will have an efficient election to the best of our ability, and Republicans are trying to stand in our way of doing that,” said Scudder. Early voting begins February 17th. ...read more read less