Chaos unfolded at the Tarrant County Commissioners’ Court on Tuesday as local officials prepared to vote on a proposal that would reduce the number of polling locations ahead of the November election.
As part of the Tarrant County Commissioners’ Court meeting today, officials will vote on a proposal to reduce the number of Election Day polling places from 316 to 176-roughly a 44 percent decrease, according to WFAA. Early voting locations would also be cut from 50 to 42.
Tensions escalated a few hours into the meeting when County Judge Tim O’Hare cleared the room after a speaker criticized how commissioners court was generally conducted.
“You keep telling us not to ‘California my Texas,’ while in reality you keep ‘Russia my Texas,” she said.
Tarrant County Commissioners’ Court met Tuesday to discuss a proposal to reduce the number of Election Day polling places from 316 to 176. (Tarrant County Commissioners’ Court)
O’Hare then cut off the woman’s public comment as another attendee in the audience held up a sign reading, “We will vote u out.”
“That’s it,” O’Hare said. “We’re going to clear the entire chambers now. You’ll get your ten seconds left. I told you how it was gonna go, so we’re in recess until the chambers are cleared.”
The court went into recess as the crowd chanted, “Shame! Shame! Shame!” O’Hare also instructed security to remove one man from the building.
“Remove them all,” O’Hare said.
Jen Rice, a reporter for the Democracy Docket and former Houston Chronicle reporter, shared a clip of the incident to X.
“I covered Harris County Commissioners Court for 2.5 years and never once saw them ‘clear the chamber’ like this,” Rice wrote.
Former State Representative Lon Burnam was carried out from Tuesday’s meeting by four sheriff deputies, according to the Fort Worth Report. Deputies told Burnam he was under arrest.
During the public comment period, Burnam picked up the microphone and briefly turned around to face the audience. O’Hare instructed Burnam to set the microphone down.
Lon Burnam, a former Texas state representative, was removed from the Tarrant County Commissioners’ Court meeting on Tuesday. Burnam was taken into custody, according to county inmate records. (Tarrant County Commissioners’ Court)
“You’re disrupting the meeting again,” O’Hare said. “I have asked you to set the microphone down. Please remove him. We will go into recess.”
Burnam was listed in custody at the Tarrant County jail Tuesday afternoon, according to the Tarrant County inmate search.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and several Texas lawmakers issued statements ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
NAACP CEO Derrick Johnson referred to the decrease as “voter suppression.”
“Cutting nearly half the places where people can cast a ballot doesn’t save democracy money, it costs voters their voice,” Johnson said in a statement. “There is no question that this plan strips away polling access on a scale that will hit Black and Brown voters hardest. That is not a coincidence.”
Officials clarified that Tuesday’s vote sets the floor, not the ceiling for the number of polling locations in the county. At one point during the meeting, O’Hare said he viewed the reduction as too drastic.
“I can tell you, I’m not comfortable with 176 election sites,” O’Hare said, adding that he found out about the number on Thursday or Friday. “I’m not okay with it. Never would’ve been okay with it…I think that’s way too large a cut.”
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This article originally published at Chaos erupts as Texas county moves to slash polling sites .