Illustration by Leonardo Cervantes<\/a><\/p>\nThe Maverick Activities Center has been a longtime voting site for UTA students, faculty and staff.<\/p>\n
Last fall, the MAC was not available for early and Election Day voting. This year, the site remains unavailable. Again.<\/p>\n
Despite the loss of the site, community members and local entities are working to ensure that student voices are heard during this election cycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Shorthorn Editorial Board believes that students should take advantage of the resources provided to them to make sure those efforts don\u2019t go to waste.<\/p>\n
This election is a midterm, meaning voters will cast their ballots on races like those for the governor and seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Voters in Tarrant County will also decide on local roles, such as county judge and commissioners court seats.<\/p>\n
On Sept. 1, Tarrant County commissioners approved a list of early and Election Day voting sites. The vote reduced the number of sites in Arlington from seven to six for early voting and from 59 to 37 for Election Day.<\/p>\n
The commissioners\u2019 decision not to allow the MAC to return as an early and Election Day voting location was part of the change. The nearest polling place to campus is now the Tarrant County Sub-Courthouse on East Abram Street.<\/p>\n
UTA was first used as an early voting site in 2008, and people could cast their ballots in a familiar place. Some of the most recent elections in which the MAC was used as a site were the 2020 primaries, the 2022 midterms and the 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n
In 2025, however, the site was removed and has not been on the approved list of voting sites since.<\/p>\n
When the vote happened, students lost more than a convenient place to cast a ballot; they lost a polling location that had become well-known to generations of Mavericks.<\/p>\n
At a Glance <\/p>\n
The Issue:\u00a0With the removal of UTA\u2019s polling site at the Maverick Activities Center, some students might see voting as a difficult task.<\/p>\n
We Think:\u00a0Local entities and community members are fighting to ensure students, faculty and staff can participate in their constitutional right.<\/p>\n
Take Action:\u00a0People should take the time to make a plan for voting.<\/p>\n
The MAC is on campus, where students live, work, study and spend their time. Removing it created another barrier between students and the ballot box \u2014 even if that barrier is 10 minutes of driving or 38 minutes of walking to and from the Tarrant County Sub- Courthouse.<\/p>\n
Local leaders are fighting to ensure student voices are heard during this election cycle.<\/p>\n
Janet Mattern, president of the League of Women Voters of Tarrant County, reached out to university officials, urging them to divert MavMover shuttle buses to take students to the nearest polling location.<\/p>\n
In a Microsoft Teams message sent on Oct. 5, Student Governance coordinator Destiny Aladeyelu announced a potential plan deploying the buses to the polls. Student Government is looking for drivers to operate the buses.<\/p>\n
The service would be offered Oct. 19, 20 and 30. Students would be picked up from Lot 49, located on Doug Russell Road, the University Center and the MAC. The shuttles would run from noon to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot predict how a student will vote, but the whole purpose is to make sure every student is able to vote,\u201d Mattern said in a previous interview with The Shorthorn.<\/p>\n
UTA has provided this service before. After regulations in House Bill 1888 barred the university from using the MAC as a polling site in the 2019 election, Student Government provided a MavMover to an early voting location during Tarrant County\u2019s November 2019 general and special elections, according to previous Shorthorn reporting.<\/p>\n
The shuttle bus took students from The Commons to the Tarrant County Sub-Courthouse in Arlington. The bus ran continuously from noon to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
Drew Miller, senior associate vice president for Student Affairs, said university officials and Student Government members are working on the logistics of making this possible.<\/p>\n
The support to get people to the polls doesn\u2019t stop at the university level.<\/p>\n
During its Sept. 29 meeting, the Arlington City Council pushed back against the reduction in polling locations, urging county commissioners to reconsider the number of sites available in the city.<\/p>\n
During the meeting, council member Brittney Garcia-Dumas said the commissioners should not make it more difficult for voters to get to the polls, according to previous Shorthorn reporting.<\/p>\n
Voting information<\/p>\n
Early voting sites in Arlington:\u00a0<\/p>\n
ACTIV CenterBob Duncan CenterElzie Odom Athletic CenterCity of Arlington Water Utilities South Service CenterTarrant County Sub-Courthouse in ArlingtonTarrant County College Southeast Campus <\/p>\n
Acceptable forms of identification:<\/p>\n
Texas driver\u2019s licenseTexas election ID certificateTexas personal ID cardTexas handgun licenseU.S. citizenship certificate with photoU.S. military ID card<\/p>\n
Community members outside of Arlington are\u00a0 also fighting for access through the courts.<\/p>\n
Deborah Peoples, Fort Worth City Council member, is suing Tarrant County\u2019s Republican commissioners and elections administrator, while seeking a temporary injunction to halt the implementation of the reduced list of polling sites for the upcoming election.<\/p>\n
Peoples; former judge Maryellen Hicks; Kathleen Hicks, former Fort Worth council member; and Camille Rodriguez, elected Fort Worth ISD trustee, claim in the lawsuit filed on Oct. 2 that the site reduction intentionally and disproportionately burdens Black and Hispanic voters.<\/p>\n
The plaintiffs request an expedited evidentiary hearing ahead of the midterms and the restoration of the nearly 100 voting sites that were cut.<\/p>\n
This issue is bigger than UTA, but the university also has a stake.<\/p>\n
When polling sites, including the MAC, were threatened in 2024, students and staff packed the courthouse and urged commissioners to reconsider the list. That time, commissioners did. In a 4-1 vote, 51 early voting sites, including UTA, were approved for the November presidential election.<\/p>\n
That year, the university community made its position clear as it fought to keep the site open. This year, the voting site is gone, but this does not mean students, faculty and staff should accept the loss as permanent or unavoidable.<\/p>\n
The people involved may have different reasons for fighting for accessible polling locations, but the underlying concern is the same: access is being limited. UTA has a responsibility to help its students, faculty and staff overcome the loss of a polling location on its campus.<\/p>\n
Whether the MAC is able to be reinstated as a polling location or not, every eligible voter should have the opportunity to participate.<\/p>\n
The Shorthorn Editorial Board urges students, faculty and staff to not let those efforts go to waste. Make a plan and vote.<\/p>\n
The Shorthorn Editorial Board is made up of opinion editor Noah Little, managing editor Leslie Orozco, news editor James Ward, engagement editor Sairam Marupudi, design editor Ryleigh Hood, copy editors Adwita Kunte and Isabella Moreno, photographer General Mason Starks, and news reporters Gabrielle Jankowski and Xioany Collazo. Starks and Moreno were not present for the conversation. Editor-in-chief Taylor Sansom was present for this\u00a0discussion.<\/p>\n
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