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Despite fewer ballots than in 2024, the Gillespie County GOP's second hand count takes nearly as long
There are idiots in Texas who want to junk voting machines and hand count ballots. These people are idiots.
Link to tweet
https://www.votebeat.org/texas/2026/03/04/gillespie-county-republicans-hand-count-2026-primary-election/
FREDERICKSBURG, Texas — When Gillespie County Republicans abandoned voting machines and hand-counted ballots in the 2024 primary election, it took until 4 a.m., required corrections in nearly every precinct, and fractured the local Republican Party. And in 2026, they did it again.
On Tuesday, election workers once again gathered in this Hill Country county to tally Republican primary votes by hand. This time, the counting and tallying stretched until nearly 3 a.m., and county election officials did not send their report to the Texas Secretary of State’s Office until after 5 a.m. Whether the results are accurate may not be clear for days.
Research shows hand-counting ballots typically takes more workers and time than machine tabulation and produces more discrepancies, though both methods can be accurate. Supporters say it increases transparency and confidence. Republicans here — and in Eastland County, which also hand-counted its primary ballots this year — opted into the more laborious process amid mistrust of voting machines in the wake of claims by President Donald Trump and others that they manipulated votes in the 2020 election. No evidence has emerged to support that......
Amid a fiercely fought primary for U.S. Senate, along with more than 40 other contested races, just under 3,000 ballots were ultimately hand-counted — far fewer than in 2024, when more than 8,000 ballots were counted entirely by hand. Everyone involved — including county officials — said things went more smoothly this time, with fewer of the reconciliation errors that made the 2024 canvass frustrating for all involved.
Even so, the process stretched nearly as late as it did in 2024.
Some precincts began counting Tuesday morning. By 11 p.m., most of the county’s votes had been reported. But results from the final precinct — Precinct 5, in Harper — did not arrive at the central elections office until 2:47 a.m.
“Sorry to keep y’all waiting,” a bleary-looking Neill Northington, the Harper precinct’s chair, said as he sat down with county election officials to review his paperwork. He and his teams finished counting around midnight, but completing the form and checking the math kept him there for longer.
On Tuesday, election workers once again gathered in this Hill Country county to tally Republican primary votes by hand. This time, the counting and tallying stretched until nearly 3 a.m., and county election officials did not send their report to the Texas Secretary of State’s Office until after 5 a.m. Whether the results are accurate may not be clear for days.
Research shows hand-counting ballots typically takes more workers and time than machine tabulation and produces more discrepancies, though both methods can be accurate. Supporters say it increases transparency and confidence. Republicans here — and in Eastland County, which also hand-counted its primary ballots this year — opted into the more laborious process amid mistrust of voting machines in the wake of claims by President Donald Trump and others that they manipulated votes in the 2020 election. No evidence has emerged to support that......
Amid a fiercely fought primary for U.S. Senate, along with more than 40 other contested races, just under 3,000 ballots were ultimately hand-counted — far fewer than in 2024, when more than 8,000 ballots were counted entirely by hand. Everyone involved — including county officials — said things went more smoothly this time, with fewer of the reconciliation errors that made the 2024 canvass frustrating for all involved.
Even so, the process stretched nearly as late as it did in 2024.
Some precincts began counting Tuesday morning. By 11 p.m., most of the county’s votes had been reported. But results from the final precinct — Precinct 5, in Harper — did not arrive at the central elections office until 2:47 a.m.
“Sorry to keep y’all waiting,” a bleary-looking Neill Northington, the Harper precinct’s chair, said as he sat down with county election officials to review his paperwork. He and his teams finished counting around midnight, but completing the form and checking the math kept him there for longer.
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