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.
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.
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.
“I’m confident that what is proposed is going to give everybody that wants to vote the opportunity to vote,” said county elections administrator Clint Ludwig, who proposed the reduction.
Commissioners voted along party lines, with Republicans — County Judge Tim O’Hare and commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez — supporting the list, and Democratic commissioners Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles Jr. voting against.
“It’s not about cost. This is about power. This is very political. This is campaigning from the dais,” said Simmons, who is running against O’Hare for the county judge seat.
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.
Miles and Simmons suggested several revisions to increase the number of sites, but their Republican colleagues rejected each of them.
Krause described requests for 316 sites as “arbitrary,” 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.
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.
“We understand the power of the vote. We are deciding whether to preserve our democracy or continue to crumble it,” said Brianna Brown, executive director of the Texas Organizing Project, a grassroots group aimed at organizing Black and brown communities in Texas.
More than 1.3 million people are registered to vote in Tarrant County. Local Republican and Democratic leaders framed the November midterms as the “most important of our lifetime.”
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’s landslide victory in the northern half of Tarrant County in a special election in January, followed by unusually high voter turnout in the March primaries, spurred Democrats’ hopes of victory in November.
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.
Ludwig told commissioners last week his proposed map of sites concentrates locations “where voters choose to vote” based on past election cycles and where facilities meet operational standards and disability accessibility requirements.
Commissioners voted on the list after 5 p.m. Immediately after the vote, attendees still in the room began chanting “shame.”
Several speakers, including Cynnamon Hall, argued that commissioners should increase rather than decrease voting sites on one of the same premises the court’s Republicans used to justify county redistricting last summer: population growth. Hall also criticized the loss of polling sites in Black and brown neighborhoods across the county, such as the 76104 zip code, which would have no sites under the current proposal.
“If you accept this, you’re basically saying that our votes don’t matter,” Hall said. “All votes matter. Vote ‘no’ on this.
Joan Gonzalez told commissioners she supports the proposal in the name of cutting costs for taxpayers, dismissing concerns about the reduction impacting voters’ ability to cast a ballot.
“My personal feeling is if you can find this commissioners court, you can find a polling place,” Gonzalez said. “You have early voting also for weeks at a time.”
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 “panicking” about where to vote.
“This should not be a controversial issue to add these locations. It should not be partisan,” Callaway said. “Do not make it hard for students of Tarrant County to vote on their campuses.”
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.
Commissioners were scheduled to finalize voting sites in early August, but agreed unanimously to table the decision until September after agreeing that Ludwig’s first proposal included too few sites. That list included 42 early voting sites and 176 on Election Day.
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.
During the nearly seven-hour meeting, O’Hare 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 out by his ankles and wrists. Another who left voluntarily was arrested a week later.
At the start of the Sept. 1 meeting, O’Hare advised attendees to follow the commissioners court rules 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.
“The 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,” O’Hare said. “Last month, we had a circus.”
As of 5:30 p.m., O’Hare 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’Hare repeatedly ordered them to be quiet.
Robbie Hoy, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s 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’Hare as he left.
The county judge endorsed Ludwig’s new proposal last week shortly after it was released.
“As I’ve said from day one, no Tarrant County voter should ever feel they don’t have enough time to vote,” O’Hare said in a news release. “This is a sensible plan designed to ensure that, and I’m grateful to our elections staff for the work that brought us here.”
From the dais, Miles showed attendees the framed poll tax receipt of his wife’s great-grandmother, who he described as a housewife and mother of 10 who “understood how important her vote was, and the voice and the power it came along with.” He compared the site reduction to poll taxes, a Jim Crow-era fee voters were required to pay in order to cast a ballot.
“Just 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,” Miles said, addressing Republican colleagues. “You may not see it, and I can’t help you see, but it is what it is.”
Simmons hosted a news conference 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.
Last month, Fort Worth City Council members unanimously approved a resolution 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.
Election Day is Nov. 3, and early voting is Oct. 19-30. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 5.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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