Three South Dallas polling sites down during first hour of voting in local elections - The Dallas Morning News

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Updated May 1 at 5:30 p.m.: Revised to include quotes from a voter.

Three polling locations in South Dallas were closed for at least the first hour of voting in Saturday’s local elections due to operational issues, the county’s elections department said.

The affected polling sites were in South Dallas’ City Council District 7, which is home to the city’s most hotly contested council race, with seven candidates pitted against freshman incumbent Adam Bazaldua. The locations were scheduled to be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The voting machines and equipment being used for the election were purchased in 2019. The county said it directed people who weren’t able to vote at the three sites to the next four nearest voting locations.

The county said the affected locations were the Park South Family YMCA, Owenwood Farm & Neighbor Space and Skyline High School.

All three sites were operational after about an hour, the county said.

Some voters said they were turned around later that morning.

John Hubbard, 73, said he was headed into the Park South Family YMCA around 10:45 a.m. when a site volunteer stopped him and at least two other people from going into the building.

”She said ‘I’m sorry, we’re having some difficulties, and you’re not going to be able to vote here right now,’” Hubbard said.

He said the volunteer told him and the other voters about different sites in the area where they could cast their ballots. But Hubbard typically votes at the YMCA, he said, and didn’t plan to travel anywhere else to vote. He also didn’t plan to return to the YMCA to see if the machines were working again.

”I would have liked to have voted, but I didn’t want to spend my whole day driving around to find a place, really,” Hubbard said.

Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said he was “very concerned” about how the county was handling the election after receiving reports of the polling site closures. He said he had heard the sites were closed for far longer than just an hour, and he called for the county to extend polling hours.

“The integrity of our municipal elections is of the utmost importance,” he said in a tweet. “Too much is at stake in this city. To have polling sites shut down for HOURS in predominantly minority and working class neighborhoods is outrageous.”

Donald Parish, one of Bazaldua’s challengers in District 7, said in a tweet that he also received reports about the polling closures. He, too, called for the affected sites to remain open longer.

“This is voter suppression,” Parish said.

Staff writer Nic Garcia contributed to this report.

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