Getty Voters cast their ballots on November 6, 2018 in Houston, Texas
Nine polling locations in Harris County, Texas have been ordered to remain open until 8 p.m. local time, an hour longer than initially scheduled. A judge issued the ruling in response to a lawsuit filed against the county.
Harris County is in the southeastern part of the state and includes the city of Houston. The full court order is embedded below.
The locations that will remain open for an extra hour are:
• Iglesia Trinidad (Precinct 0597)
• Metcalf Elementary (Precinct 0882)
• Evelyn Thompson Elementary (Precinct 0061)
• Hampton Inn Katy Fwy (Precinct 0055)
• Fiesta Mart, Inc. (Precinct 0541)
• John Marshall Middle School (Precinct 0046)
• HOAPV Community Building (0030)
• Lone Star College Cypress Center (Precinct 305 and 951)
• Houston Community College Alief Center (Precinct 0428)
However, the polling places could remain open for far longer than 8 p.m. depending on how long people have to wait in line. Texas is legally required to remain open if people are waiting to enter the polling location.
WE WON! We sued Harris County for failing to open nine polling places on time. After we filed our lawsuit, the County Judge ruled that those nine polling places must stay open an extra hour, until 8pm. These sites were delayed in opening this morning or had technology issues.
The two groups involved in the lawsuit were the Texas Civil Rights Project and the Texas Organizing Project. They sued after hearing multiple reports of polling locations failing to open at 7 a.m. The Texas Tribune and the Dallas Morning News spoke with registered voters who tried to vote this morning, but had to leave to go to work because their polling place had either not opened or was having technical issues.
One example of technical issues that took place was in Arlington. The electronic voting machines did not work properly after the polls opened. The poll workers started giving out paper ballots, but reportedly ran out of them.
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