Leticia Juarez's 11 News report

HOUSTON — Police were called out to some polling sites to calm crowds who were frustrated by the long wait to caucus.

Some voters were still waiting to get inside their precinct site at 10 p.m. — three hours after the polls closed.

"SOS. We're in Precinct 298 at Emerson Elementary... This is nuts," Barbara Kelley e-mailed. "They don't even have paper and pens for us to sign in. We don't even have enough official forms to sign in."

“Craziness. They need to get rid of this system,” said one angry caucus leader.

In northwest Houston, about 3,000 people were waiting outside a location in the 7300 block of North Shepherd. The precinct judge in charge of that location finally came out with a bullhorn to explain that she was alone, and had called for help to organize the crowd.

There was a similar scene in West Houston at Wilcrest and Richmond. Many voters began lining up to caucus at 7 p.m. and were still waiting hours later.

The precinct judge at that site was nowhere to be found.

“The whole process was total confusion,” said one election worker.

Police escorted the unidentified woman outside to explain the situation to the angry crowd.

“We appreciate your patience. We’re going to move forward whether the judge is here or not,” said the woman. “I believe that she’s gone or he’s gone, but we will move this meeting forward.”

AP

Record numbers of voters turned out to caucus in Texas.

Those voters finally got the word just after 10 p.m. that their caucus was about to get under way.

In Pearland, so many voters showed up they had to move the caucus outside. They used car headlights to see.

At Nimitz High School, there were reports that people were still waiting in line to vote at 11 p.m. The caucus process can't start until all ballots are cast. Anyone still in line when the polls closed at 7 p.m. was allowed to vote.

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Police officers escorted a poll worker to explain the situation to the angry crowd.

One worker at NHS said they had only three working voting machines to serve the hundreds of people waiting to vote. Voters from eight precincts waited more than six hours in the NHS auditorium to caucus.

"It just really makes no sense," voter Philip Sampon said. "I think it was a poorly orchestrated effort in reference to the turnout; maybe they weren't expecting as many people."

A minor gas leak briefly delayed the delivery of some election returns in West Houston.

The leak had minimal effect on the overall tabulation because of delays already caused by caucuses required after voting, said Hector Deleon, Harris County clerk’s office spokesman.

It was a similar story in other parts of Texas, including Travis and Tarrant counties.

Austin police responded to a minor disturbance at a Travis County precinct.

Election officials say high voter turnout simply overwhelmed many precincts.

Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson had predicted about 26 percent of the state’s 12.75 million registered voters would cast ballots.