Eastland's hand count of Republican primary ballots stretches into Wednesday as residents wait on results

ust after midnight, as Election Day became Wednesday, workers at a polling place in the city of Rising Star called Eastland County election administrator Temi Nichols with a problem.

They told Nichols some workers tasked with hand counting the GOP ballots cast at that location had decided to call it quits, she told a reporter afterwards, and she tried to talk those on the phone out of joining them “Please don’t load up and take off,” Nichols said.

The workers on the other end of the phone said they weren’t sure how to read the tally sheets the other workers had left behind or fill out the required paperwork, among other things, according to Nichols. They asked her if they could go home and finish counting in the morning.

Nichols told them that according to state law, they could not stop once counting had begun. She told them to call Robin Hayes, the Eastland County Republican Party Chair, in charge of administering the county’s GOP primary election, and “tell her y’all need help.”



https://www.votebeat.org/texas/2026/03/04/eastland-county-republicans-hand-count-2026-primary-election-temi-nichols/