{"id":423489,"date":"2026-09-02T02:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/423489\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T02:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:34:22","slug":"tarrant-county-removes-92-polling-sites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/423489\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarrant County removes 92 polling sites"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tarrant County commissioners voted 3-2 Tuesday to approve a list of polling sites for the November elections that included 92 fewer sites than the 2022 midterms. <\/p>\n

The approval came after commissioners heard testimony from more than 100 speakers, the majority of whom were opposed to the site cuts, during a meeting that lasted over eight hours. Voting rights advocates and representatives of 30 civic groups rallied outside the county courthouse Tuesday morning, demanding that commissioners approve a list with the same number of sites as the 2022 midterms. <\/p>\n

The adopted list includes 224 sites for Election Day and 47 for early voting. The 2022 list included 316 Election Day sites and 50 for early voting. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m confident that what is proposed is going to give everybody that wants to vote the opportunity to vote,\u201d said county elections administrator Clint Ludwig, who proposed the reduction. <\/p>\n

Commissioners voted along party lines, with Republicans \u2014 County Judge Tim O\u2019Hare and commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez \u2014 supporting the list, and Democratic commissioners Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles Jr. voting against.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about cost. This is about power. This is very political. This is campaigning from the dais,\u201d said Simmons, who is running against O\u2019Hare for the county judge seat. <\/p>\n

Ramirez, who is seeking reelection in November, said he asked Ludwig to present a list that included all of the sites used in 2022. Ludwig said several of the sites were unavailable, unwilling or unable under statutory requirements to be used this year. <\/p>\n

Miles and Simmons suggested several revisions to increase the number of sites, but their Republican colleagues rejected each of them. <\/p>\n

Krause described requests for 316 sites as \u201carbitrary,\u201d questioning why his Democratic colleagues would be satisfied with that total instead of a higher one, such as 400 or even 700. Miles said he wants as many sites as possible. <\/p>\n

At the morning news conference and throughout the meeting, speakers urged commissioners to increase, rather than decrease the number of places for voters to cast a ballot. They also asked to reinstate specific sites that Ludwig suggested eliminating, such as the Maverick Activity Center at the University of Texas at Arlington.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand the power of the vote. We are deciding whether to preserve our democracy or continue to crumble it,\u201d said Brianna Brown, executive director of the Texas Organizing Project, a grassroots group aimed at organizing Black and brown communities in Texas. <\/p>\n

More than 1.3 million people are registered to vote in Tarrant County. Local Republican and Democratic leaders framed the November midterms as the \u201cmost important of our lifetime.\u201d <\/p>\n

Historically a Republican stronghold, Tarrant County has shown occasional signs of trending purple as voters narrowly supported Democratic candidates at the top of the statewide ballot in recent elections. Democratic Sen. Taylor Rehmet\u2019s landslide victory<\/a> in the northern half of Tarrant County in a special election in January, followed by unusually high voter turnout in the March primaries, spurred<\/a> Democrats\u2019 hopes of victory in November. <\/p>\n

Thirty miles east, Dallas County commissioners also considered a list of polling sites Tuesday. Their proposal includes 85 early voting sites and 448 Election Day sites.<\/p>\n

Ludwig told commissioners last week his proposed map of sites concentrates<\/a> locations \u201cwhere voters choose to vote\u201d based on past election cycles and where facilities meet operational standards and disability accessibility requirements. <\/p>\n

Commissioners voted on the list after 5 p.m. Immediately after the vote, attendees still in the room began chanting \u201cshame.\u201d <\/p>\n

Several speakers, including Cynnamon Hall, argued that commissioners should increase rather than decrease voting sites on one of the same premises the court\u2019s Republicans used to justify county redistricting<\/a> last summer: population growth. Hall also criticized the loss of polling sites in Black and brown neighborhoods across the county, such as the 76104<\/a> zip code, which would have no sites under the current proposal. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you accept this, you\u2019re basically saying that our votes don\u2019t matter,\u201d Hall said. \u201cAll votes matter. Vote \u2018no\u2019 on this.<\/p>\n

Joan Gonzalez told commissioners she supports the proposal in the name of cutting costs for taxpayers, dismissing concerns about the reduction impacting voters\u2019 ability to cast a ballot. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy personal feeling is if you can find this commissioners court, you can find a polling place,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cYou have early voting also for weeks at a time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Emeri Callaway, vice president of the Tarrant County Young Democrats, urged commissioners to restore the sites Ludwig proposed cutting, especially the MAC at UTA. They spoke of college students across the county calling the organization \u201cpanicking\u201d about where to vote. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis should not be a controversial issue to add these locations. It should not be partisan,\u201d Callaway said. \u201cDo not make it hard for students of Tarrant County to vote on their campuses.\u201d <\/p>\n

During the meeting, Simmons repeatedly attempted to get UTA added back to the list. Republicans argued that students had easy access to the nearby county subcourthouse in Arlington.<\/p>\n

Commissioners were scheduled to finalize voting sites in early August, but agreed unanimously to table<\/a> the decision until September after agreeing that Ludwig\u2019s first proposal included too few sites. That list included 42 early voting sites and 176 on Election Day. <\/p>\n

The Aug. 4 commissioners court meeting drew dozens of speakers, the majority of whom testified against a reduction in polling sites and demanded an increase in sites to accommodate population growth since the 2022 midterms.<\/p>\n

During the nearly seven-hour meeting, O\u2019Hare made all attendees leave the courtroom after some speakers continued talking after their allotted time to address the courtroom ran out and others shouted or used profanity. One speaker was arrested and carried<\/a> out by his ankles and wrists. Another who left voluntarily was arrested<\/a> a week later. <\/p>\n

At the start of the Sept. 1 meeting, O\u2019Hare advised attendees to follow the commissioners court rules<\/a> of decorum they agree to follow when they sign up to speak during public comment. Those who violate the rules, which he read aloud, could be removed by sheriff deputies and possibly arrested, he warned. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last thing I want to see is anybody removed from the chambers. The last thing I want to see is anybody arrested. The last thing I want to see is a circus,\u201d O\u2019Hare said. \u201cLast month, we had a circus.\u201d <\/p>\n

As of 5:30 p.m., O\u2019Hare ordered sheriff deputies to remove three attendees from the meeting. One of them used profanity during his allotted time to speak, and the others spoke from the audience after O\u2019Hare repeatedly ordered them to be quiet. <\/p>\n

Robbie Hoy, a spokesperson for the sheriff\u2019s office, told the Report no arrests were made during the meeting. One speaker was given a criminal trespass warning after speaking from the audience and directing a profane word at O\u2019Hare as he left.<\/p>\n

The county judge endorsed<\/a> Ludwig\u2019s new proposal last week shortly after it was released. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs I\u2019ve said from day one, no Tarrant County voter should ever feel they don\u2019t have enough time to vote,\u201d O\u2019Hare said in a news release. \u201cThis is a sensible plan designed to ensure that, and I\u2019m grateful to our elections staff for the work that brought us here.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the dais, Miles showed attendees the framed poll tax receipt of his wife\u2019s great-grandmother, who he described as a housewife and mother of 10 who \u201cunderstood how important her vote was, and the voice and the power it came along with.\u201d He compared the site reduction to poll taxes, a Jim Crow-era fee voters were required to pay in order to cast a ballot. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust know that you are creating poll taxes, modern day poll taxes, for people to go and vote and do what they have the right to do,\u201d Miles said, addressing Republican colleagues. \u201cYou may not see it, and I can\u2019t help you see, but it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simmons hosted a news conference<\/a> Sunday with State Rep. James Talarico of Austin, the Democratic nominee for U.S. senator. Both warned that cutting polling sites could reduce access for voters. <\/p>\n

Last month, Fort Worth City Council members unanimously approved a resolution<\/a> opposing a proposed reduction in polling sites. They urged county officials to consider alternatives and ensure that voting sites are evenly distributed across the four commissioner precincts. <\/p>\n

Election Day is Nov. 3, and early voting is Oct. 19-30. The deadline to register<\/a> to vote is Oct. 5. <\/p>\n

Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[122,27,29,28,2279,6588],"class_list":["post-423489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-tarrant-county","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-voting","tag-well-c-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}