Republican officials in a major battleground Texas county voted Tuesday to slash Election Day polling locations by 30% for the November midterm elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Under the new plan, Tarrant County will have 224 Election Day voting locations, down from 316 in the 2022 midterms. It will also have 47 early voting locations, down from 50.<\/p>\n
The county commissioners approved the early voting and Election Day location plans in separate 3-2 votes. County Judge Tim O\u2019Hare and Commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez voted in favor of both plans, while Commissioners Roderick Miles Jr. and Alisa Simmons voted against them.<\/p>\n
The Republican majority also rejected amendments that would have restored polling locations at the University of Texas at Arlington and the Northeast and South campuses of Tarrant County College. Another amendment seeking to restore dozens of Election Day locations also failed 2-3.<\/p>\n
Outraged Tarrant County voters showed up at Tuesday\u2019s county commissioners meeting in force, more than filling<\/a> two overflow rooms<\/a> and holding signs with a clear message about the Republican local officials who supported the plan: \u201cVote them out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe are making national headlines for all the wrong reasons this week,\u201d Tarrant County resident Brooke Whittaker told county leaders. \u201cOrdinary citizens should not have to come down here and explain to you why making it harder to vote is a bad idea, but here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n Tarrant County, home to Fort Worth, is the 14th largest county in the U.S. Traditionally a safe GOP stronghold, it\u2019s become a crucial battleground county with a growing minority population that votes increasingly Democratic. Earlier this year, Texas Republicans were stunned when Democrat Taylor Rehmet won a special election to fill a state senate seat in Tarrant County.\u00a0<\/p>\n Texas will host a pivotal U.S. Senate race, as well as several key U.S. House races, this fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n State Rep. Chris Turner (D) blasted GOP county leaders for closing polls, particularly at the University of Texas at Arlington and Bethlehem Baptist Church.<\/p>\n \u201cStripping a major university of its polling site is not a neutral decision,\u201d Turner said<\/a> in a letter posted on social media. \u201cIt is a deliberate barrier placed in front of young voters, first-time voters, and voters who already face disproportionate obstacles to civic participation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEqually unacceptable is the proposed elimination of Bethlehem Baptist Church, a site that opened in 2024 and has since become a model of community engagement,\u201d Turner went on. \u201cFrom 2024 to 2026, Bethlehem Baptist Church more than tripled its voter turnout, a clear sign that when communities are given accessible, trusted locations, they show up.\u201d<\/p>\n Kayla Gillespie, a student at the University of Texas at Arlington, spoke at Tuesday\u2019s meeting, imploring leaders to keep the campus polling site open.<\/p>\n \u201cAccessibility is one of the biggest factors when it comes to young voters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n During the debate, Simmons read from an email in which a UTA official said the university was \u201chappy to accommodate early voting and day-of voting at the Maverick Activity Center.\u201d Election Administrator Clint Ludwig said he did not receive final confirmation from the university until the Saturday before the vote.<\/p>\n Simmons argued that sending students to another location ignored the practical burden involved. \u201cYou expect the student to walk a mile to the Arlington sub-courthouse,\u201d she said. \u201cYou walk a mile and it\u2019s going to take you about 45 minutes each way, and you\u2019ve got class to get back to.\u201d<\/p>\n Another Tarrant County resident, Donna Reagan, said she worried that Tarrant County\u2019s GOP leadership was headed in an increasingly alarming direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI realize that if this trend continues of suppressing the vote of populations you deem unworthy, by the time my grandkids are old enough to vote the obstacles may seem so insurmountable they don\u2019t even register \u2014 which might be the point,\u201d Reagan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Miles warned his fellow commissioners that a polling location\u2019s significance cannot be measured by distance or turnout numbers alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese are not just buildings. These are not just places where people go to vote,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s history in these buildings. There\u2019s familiarity. There\u2019s community in these buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy to say it\u2019s only a mile if you\u2019ve got a car,\u201d Miles continued. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to say that it\u2019s on the bus route if you\u2019ve got money to buy a bus fare. What about the people who don\u2019t have the ability to do those things?\u201d<\/p>\n Voters did not appear to be persuaded by GOP officials\u2019 claims that the cuts were motivated by financial constraints.<\/p>\n \u201cYou tell us this is about efficiency and saving our tax dollars,\u201d Tarrant County voter Laney Hawes told officials. \u201cI\u2019d love to know what you all think our tax dollars are for. They are to serve us and I can\u2019t think of a better use of taxpayer money than to encourage and support the democratic process.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Simmons said an analysis of the adopted list showed that the quarter of Tarrant County ZIP codes with the lowest poverty rates would lose about 15% of their Election Day locations, while the quarter with the highest poverty rates would lose about 41%.<\/p>\n Miles compared the new barriers to the poll taxes imposed on earlier generations of voters, holding up the poll-tax receipt belonging to his wife\u2019s great-grandmother, Maggie McCain.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cShe was willing to suffer the indignity of having to pay a poll tax for a right that belonged to her,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we are doing with reducing polling locations is instituting barriers to making access to voting for people. It\u2019s modern-day poll taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n Voters were furious when county leaders initially considered<\/a> a plan last month that would have cut almost half of the Election Day polls and closed eight early voting sites, including some on college campuses.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Tarrant County Judge Tim O\u2019Hare (R), who leads the county government, will have to face those voters himself in November. He decided to postpone<\/a> the final vote to Sept. 1 to add more locations.<\/p>\n