Madeleine Pelzel wasn't expecting the long line at TSU. She was at a different polling location where the wait was projected to be two hours when she checked the Harris County Clerk's website for information on wait times at other polling places.
Harris County recently transitioned to a voting center model from a precinct-based system, which assigned each voter to a certain precinct. That meant Pelzel could vote at any polling place in Harris County, so when she saw the green check mark over TSU on the website indicating there was little to no wait, she hopped on her bike and cycled over.
Pelzel told BuzzFeed News she reached TSU at around 5:30 p.m., where, contrary to what the county website said, there was a long line out the door. Hundreds of people had already been waiting hours to vote.
And like her, many others had seen the short wait time for TSU on the Harris County Clerk's website and driven over. Voters continued to pour in as the lines grew longer.
Tweet: Harris County, THIS is voter suppression. Call. Make a formal complaint. This is entirely unnecessary. It’s 2020.
So, apparently the Dems are being accused of voter suppression, not the Republicans, which is the opposite of what you posted, DRO.
"So many people had been in other lines, so many people had not gone to their more local voting location because they thought there might be a line," Pelzel said. "People were driving [to TSU] from actually quite far away, like over 30 minutes."
Counties adopting the voting center model are allowed to cut down on the number of polling places they run, the Guardian reported, a change that may have contributed to the long lines in Harris County. The county clerk's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
At around 8 p.m., election clerks brought in more voting machines. It took an hour to set up, Pelzel recalled, during which no one was allowed to vote.
Pelzel said she ended up waiting until 9:15 p.m. to finally cast her ballot.
Francesca Ervin also went to TSU after she heard that there was a shorter wait there. But by the time she got in line, Ervin told BuzzFeed News, "I was kicking myself."
...
Five hours later, she got to the front of the line. By then, there were only three or four election clerks there to assist voters.
"This is definitely my worst voting experience," Ervin said.
Link: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clarissajanlim/texas-harris-county-polls-super-tuesday-voters