On February 10, Dallas County reported that they had received 583 mail-in ballots for the March primary. The Dallas County Election Administrator office announced that they had to return 166 of the ballots, a rate of 28%, or over one in four. 

The Election Administrator for Dallas, Michael Scarpello, told the Dallas Morning News that the rejected ballots could be resubmitted by 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 1.

The Texas Tribune reported that in Harris County, over 40% of ballots had been returned. These rates are an objective divergence from the typical rate of returned ballots, according to numbers provided by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s 2020 Election Administration and Voting Survey, which found that only 0.8% of mail-in ballots were rejected for the 2020 election cycle.

Although Dallas County has yet to provide a reason for their rejected ballots, Harris County election officials claim many of their ballots were sent back due to a lack of ID numbers. Under the new law, voters must present either a Texas Driver’s License number or a Texas Personal Identification Number on the mail-in ballots. A Texas voter can submit anything from a handgun license to a passport for in-person voting. 

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“That’s our big question mark right now,” Isabel Longo, Harris election official, said. “Are voters going to go through the extra step to correct it? We’ll see how many we get back.” 

In the suburban county of Williamson, which has fewer foreign-born and migrant residents, returned ballot rates are nearly 30%. 

The mail-in forms for 2022 feature a section outlining the new rules, which takes up a portion of the ballot. The registration information is placed directly next to other basic voting information.

Hays County official elections chief Jennifer Anderson says that the rate of rejected ballots in that county is dropping as people become more attuned to the new laws. Hays County previously saw a 25% rejection rate, but it has now been lowered to just 4%.

“It seems like our outreach is working,” states Anderson.

The ballot PDF can be viewed here

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