Some Tarrant voters may need a new mail-in ballot application for primaries. Why?

More than a thousand Tarrant County voters who have requested a mail-in ballot may still need to submit a new application ahead of the March primaries.

A mail-in ballot application sent by the Texas Democratic Party was missing information related to the March 3 primary elections, Tarrant County Democratic Party chair Allison Campolo said in a Friday text message.

The forms are acceptable for every election this year, including Saturday’s runoff, except for the primaries, where voters must select which party’s primary they want to vote in, said Campolo and Tarrant County Election Administrator Clint Ludwig.

“The application had everything but a box for the primaries to select what party you wanted,” Ludwig said.

The state party said the mailers were specific to the runoff election, and that an additional mailer has been sent to voters with a primary ballot application.

Campolo called the issue “very serious” and said Tarrant County Elections is notifying voters out of courtesy, rather than not sending the voters a primary ballot, and allowing them to submit an application for the primary if desired. Ludwig said the affected voters are being sent a letter and new application from the county.

Campolo and Ludwig estimated that more than 1,000 voters in the county have been affected. The Texas Democratic Party said it sent out 30,000 mailers to elgible mail-in voters living in Senate District 9.

“Our Vote by Mail program in Tarrant County was specifically targeted at the SD9 special election runoff,” said Terri Burke, the executive director of the Texas Democratic Party in a Saturday statement. “Those voters received mail-in ballot applications for today’s runoff and all other elections this year except for the primary. An additional mailing has been sent to individuals who require primary ballot applications.”

Asked about the party’s statement, Campolo said in a Saturday text that she’s “grateful to the state party for sending these vote by mail applications to our voters.

“The barrage of elections this year combined with Texas election laws has made this inherently confusing for voters no matter what the applications looked like or included,” Campollo continued. “This will be a tremendous year of voter education and outreach to make sure that all voters have the information they need at every election.”