Fort Worth city leader explains timing of lawsuit over cut polling locations ahead of early voting

The 76103 Fort Worth ZIP code is among the areas that no longer have a polling place after nearly 100 voting locations were closed ahead of this election cycle. Now, a lawsuit is seeking to get those polling places back open.

The lawsuit comes just weeks after the Tarrant County Commissioners Court voted 3 to 2 to close 92 polling locations. Fort Worth City Council Member Deborah Peoples is one of four plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Peoples said the plaintiffs waited to file until they could review the data and the commissioners court meeting.

“We waited to file this lawsuit until we could pull all the data, looked at the data, and looked at the commissioners court meeting, and listened to what the elections administrator, Clint Ludwig, said about how he pulled it, and then we did our own studies,” People said.

The lawsuit argues the closures will disenfranchise more than one million registered voters in Tarrant County. In contrast, Republican commissioners have argued the changes will save the county thousands of dollars.

Peoples said the impact is especially significant in her Fort Worth neighborhood in the 76103 ZIP code.

“We now have no voting location in this entire ZIP code. The other sites that were removed, most of them were in areas where there are people of color and poor people,” Peoples said.

WFAA reached out to the four defendants named in the lawsuit: Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare, Commissioners Manny Ramirez and Matt Krause, and Election Administrator Clint Ludwig.

Tarrant County Commissioner Matt Krause, who serves as commissioner for Precinct 3, told WFAA Friday evening he just learned of the lawsuit, so had no statement available at the time. Krause appeared on the Sept. 6 episode of Y’all-itics to discuss his support for reducing the number of voting sites in Tarrant County.

O’Hare’s campaign strategist sent WFAA a statement calling the lawsuit a political stunt by Democrats and saying the Commissioners Court rejected a plan with too few voting locations and demanded a plan with more locations to give voters ample opportunity to cast their ballots.

With early voting set to begin Oct. 19, Peoples said she wants all 92 polling locations restored.

“I believe, Scoop, that justice should be blind,” Peoples said.

Peoples said she’s now counting on that blind justice as she waits to see whether the court agrees.