Ballot counting was not finished Wednesday in Dallas County, with two state house races still considered too close to call.
After more than 924,000 Dallas County in-person and mail-in ballots were tabulated Tuesday night, officials said more than 3,000 provisional ballots were set aside for review later.
Many of those provisional ballots were cast by in-person voters who requested mail ballots that they never received.
“If they left their mail-in ballot at home, then said ‘I want to vote,’ that could be some of those provisional ballots,” said Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Rodney Anderson.
Dallas County received another 858 mail-in ballots Wednesday that had been postmarked by Tuesday according to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins.
“And in addition, there are the military and overseas ballots that are allowed to be counted if they are received within the next five days,” said Dallas County Democratic Party Chair Carol Donovan.
In the statehouse races that could be impacted by these remaining ballots, just over 200 votes separated Republican incumbent leader Angie Chen Button from Democratic challenger Brandy Chambers Wednesday.
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And around 1,600 votes separated Republican Incumbent leader Morgan Meyer from Democratic challenger Joanna Cattanach.
Those new mail ballots Wednesday added several dozen votes to the house races but not enough to change the leaders.
After big advertising spending in both of those races, both the Democratic and Republican Party leaders in Dallas County agreed that all the ballots must be received before declaring a winner.
“We need to wait on those before making a call,” Donavan said.
Republican Chairman Anderson said electronic poll book records of voters who when to vote do not always match the number of ballots. He said that is an issue that deserves scrutiny in Dallas County, but not the cause for any claim of fraud.
“There are checks and balances in place to make sure the proper count is done, and it may take a few days in order to get their own races that are this tight,” Anderson said. “Take a deep breath. Let the process work.”
Additional mail ballots and provisional ballots will be reviewed by members of a ballot board, with candidates paying close attention.
Donovan said the board took most of the day off Wednesday after pulling an all-nighter from 10 p.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Wednesday.
The board will continue the work on Thursday.
