Paxton Name Hidden on Harris County Ballots; 2,000 Provisional Votes at Risk

Voters in Harris County reported that Attorney General Ken Paxton's name does not display on Harris County primary ballots without scrolling down, and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales shared voter evidence, igniting outrage amid ongoing early voting for March 3 primaries. The social-media amplification has fueled claims of deliberate vote suppression from residents who say they could not immediately see the AG’s name on electronic ballot screens.

That ballot-visibility complaint is separate from active litigation tied to last November’s election results. Paxton filed a mandamus Monday afternoon to the Texas Supreme Court asking it to disregard roughly 2,000 provisional ballots cast in Harris County by voters who arrived in line between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., the filing was submitted ahead of a Tuesday meeting where the Harris County Commissioners’ Court was set to certify November election results.

The provisional ballots at issue stem from a judge’s order on Election Night that required all Harris County polling locations to allow people to vote until 8 p.m. after the Texas Organizing Project filed an emergency petition noting that 12 voting locations opened more than an hour late. Voters who arrived in line after the statutory 7 p.m. cutoff were permitted to cast provisional ballots; Paxton argued in the mandamus that even if sites opened late, extending voting past the usual deadline did not justify counting those ballots.

Harris County Democratic Party Chair Odus Evbagharu called Paxton’s move political, saying, “This is a calculated move by Paxton to change the election results because a race flipped in favor of Democrats during the final count.” Harris County Republicans encouraged supporters to attend the commissioners’ court meeting, with the local GOP urging followers to “make your voice heard by speaking on this botched election run by the failed Elections Administrator.”

Paxton’s broader November 2022 legal campaign against Harris County election practices includes a lawsuit he announced on November 17, 2022, against Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins for sending what Paxton’s office described as unsolicited mail-in ballot applications to over two million Harris County registered voters. The attorney general’s statement said, “Under Texas election law, mail-in ballots are reserved for a few limited categories of qualified voters who are age 65 and older and voters who are disabled,” and cited a Texas Supreme Court ruling that fear of contracting COVID-19 does not qualify as a disability. Paxton’s office also said, “The Harris County Clerk’s proposed mass mailing would sow confusion because applications would go to all registered voters, regardless of whether they legally qualify to vote a mail ballot and regardless of whether they even want to vote by mail,” and that Paxton issued a Civil Investigative Demand to the Center for Tech and Civic Life to probe possible misuse of donated funds.

With roughly 2,000 provisional ballots and earlier claims about more than two million mailed applications on the table, Harris County faces concurrent technical and legal disputes affecting both the March 3 primary voting experience and the certified outcome of last November’s races. County certification at the commissioners’ court and the Texas Supreme Court’s response to the mandamus will shape whether those provisional ballots are counted and how election procedures are scrutinized locally.