Fort Worth City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to oppose a reduction in Tarrant County voting sites for the November midterm elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Council members urged Tarrant County commissioners, who approve the list of sites, to consider alternatives to a reduction proposed by the county elections administrator and to ensure that voting sites are equitably distributed across the county.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their resolution comes one week after commissioners were scheduled<\/a> to finalize a list of voting sites. Commissioners ultimately delayed<\/a> the decision until September after agreeing that the proposal included too few sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cElections have consequences. They are incredibly important, and it is our job to make sure that we get as many people to the polls as we can, to have their voices heard,\u201d council member Elizabeth Beck said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The resolution adopted by council members described the right to vote as \u201cthe cornerstone of our democracy\u201d that should never be made harder to exercise.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last week, commissioners instructed elections administrator Clint Ludwig to revise<\/a> his proposal, which would have eliminated 45% of the Election Day polling sites used for the 2022 midterms, cutting the total from 316 to 176. Early voting sites would have been reduced from 50 used in 2022 to 42 this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n About 1.3 million people are registered to vote in Tarrant County. Unusually high voter turnout during the March primaries, which determined Republican and Democratic nominees for the November ballot, could be an indicator<\/a> of increased voter engagement this fall as well, political scientists previously told the Fort Worth Report.\u00a0<\/p>\n