Hi, y’all.

Yesterday, Allen West, the leader of the Dallas County Republican Party, resigned from his position. Last fall, West supported the party’s push to hand-count ballots and to eliminate countywide voting. And although the party did not go through with its plans to hand count, it still chose to have voters cast ballots at assigned precinct locations, forcing the county Democrats to do the same. You can read more about why that’s allowed and how that works here. 

The Republicans’  decision led to chaos and confusion. We reported that thousands of voters from both parties showed up at the wrong polling location on Election Day. But that doesn’t seem to be why West resigned. 

Last month, days after the election, West released a statement saying he’d agreed to go back to using countywide voting, which the county’s voters had become accustomed to for years. And later at the beginning of April, he stood by that decision and said he’d expected opposition from members of his own party. You can read more about that here. 

For years now, Republicans have pushed to eliminate countywide voting — by filing legislation (though that has so far failed) and by eliminating it during primary elections — but election officials across Texas and elsewhere in the country have said that doing so is far more costly and that the change would confuse voters. And that’s some of what we saw this year in Dallas County and other places. 

Nonetheless, West’s resignation and the backlash he’s received from members of his own party for backing countywide voting is a sign that efforts by Republicans to eliminate the program may continue. I’ll be staying on top of that. 

In other news, at least three Texas counties last week received or may soon receive subpoenas from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The details of their purpose are not yet clear, but Texas last year flagged more than 2,000 voters as “potential noncitizens,” and in December the state transferred the entire voter roll to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

In a statement on Tuesday, a DHS spokesperson said that under President Trump, the department is “committed to restoring integrity to our election systems and ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens are electing American leaders.”

What do you think about elections in Texas? You can reach me at [email protected]. And if you know anyone who might dig this kind of reporting, encourage them to sign up for the newsletter! They can do that here.

You're invited: How the 2000 election set the stage for 2026

The 2000 presidential election didn’t just decide a presidency — it reshaped the way America runs elections. Join us on April 23 for a virtual conversation with election law scholar Rick Hasen and long-time Florida election administrator Paul Lux. Together, they’ll explore how the crisis in Florida led to the creation of the Help America Vote Act, the modernization of voter rolls, the birth of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and a lasting debate over the federal government’s role in elections.

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