AUSTIN, Texas • More than 27,000 mail ballots in Texas were flagged for rejection in the first test of new voting restrictions enacted across the U.S., jeopardizing votes cast by Democrats and Republicans alike and in counties big and small, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.

It puts the rate of rejected mail ballots in Texas on track to significantly surpass previous elections. The preliminary figures — reported by Texas counties after votes were counted in the state’s March 1 primary — is the fullest picture to date of how new election rules rushed into place by Republicans following the 2020 election made it harder for thousands of voters in both parties. Some will wind up not having their ballots count.

Rejected mail ballots are relatively uncommon in a typical election. But the initial rejection rate among mail voters in the Texas primary was roughly 17% across 120 counties, according to county-by-county figures obtained by AP.

Those counties accounted for the vast majority of the nearly 3 million voters in Texas’ first-in-the-nation primary.

Although the final number of discounted ballots will be lower, the early numbers suggest Texas’ rejection rate will far exceed the 2020 general election, when federal data showed that less than 1% of mail ballots statewide were rejected.

“It took me three tries and 28 days but I got my ballot and I voted,” said Pamiel Gaskin, 75, of Houston. Like many rejected mail voters, she did not list a matching identification number that Texas’ new law requires.

For now, the numbers do not represent how many Texas ballots were effectively thrown out. Voters had until Monday to “fix” rejected mail ballots, which in most cases meant providing identification that is now required under a sweeping law signed last fall by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. County election officers say they worked feverishly to contact those voters in time, in many cases successfully, and a full and final tally of rejected ballots in Texas is expected to come into focus in the coming days.

But already, scores of mail ballots have been disqualified for good.

Along the Texas border, El Paso County reported that 725 mail ballots were officially rejected and not counted after a final canvass Monday — about 16% of all such ballots cast. In the booming suburbs of Austin, Williamson County had a final number of 521 rejected ballots, nearly evenly split evenly between Republican and Democratic primary voters.

Roughly 8,300 mail ballots in Texas were rejected in the 2020 election, according to the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission.

Some rejected mail voters could have casted a ballot in person later.

Antonio Riveria, El Paso County’s assistant elections administrator, said Wednesday that number is unknown in his office. But they typically reject significantly fewer mail ballots.

“It’s a lot less. Maybe 10,” he said.

The numbers underline how voters across Texas — in big cities and rural outposts, red and blue — were tripped up by the new law that Abbott and other Republicans assured would make it “easier to vote and harder to cheat.”

At least 17 other states will also vote this year under new voting laws, many pushed by Republican lawmakers who especially took aim at mail ballots after states expanded options to make voting safer during the coronavirus outbreak. Some of the restrictions were fueled by the continued false claims in the GOP about widespread fraud in President Joe Biden’s victory.

Abbott’s office did not return requests for comment about the number of rejected ballots.

Texas Secretary of State John Scott, who Abbott appointed as the state’s chief election officer, has called the high rate of rejections a matter of voters not being familiar with the new rules and expressed confidence that the numbers will drop in future elections.

Pam Gaskin talks about her mail-in primary election ballot at her home this week in Missouri City, Texas.