Texas Republicans in at least a half-dozen are proposing to hand-count election ballots, reviving a right-wing, conspiracy-tinged idea that took root after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. In their view, hand-counting ballots would stop voting machines secretly run by Venezuelan socialists or whatever from flipping your vote to the Democrat in the race.

Republicans in five counties—Dallas, Denton, Eastland, Hays, and Gillespie—have reportedly already approved hand-counting for next year’s midterm primaries, while another, Orange County, is moving that way.

The Texas GOP is able to do this because political parties—and not the government—run Election Day voting in the state’s primaries. But in moving toward hand-counting, these Texas Republicans are overlooking the fact that they alre

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