More than 100 residents, activists, voting rights advocates and faith leaders demanded Tuesday morning that Tarrant County commissioners reject a proposal to reduce polling sites for the November midterm elections.
County officials should increase, rather than decrease, the number of places for voters to cast a ballot, the group said at a news conference.
“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.
County commissioners are scheduled to vote on a list of polling sites for the November midterms at their 10 a.m. Tuesday meeting. The list proposed by county elections administrator Clint Ludwig would eliminate 92 of the Election Day sites used in the 2022 midterms and three of the early voting sites.
If adopted by commissioners, Tarrant County would have 47 early voting sites and 224 sites for Election Day.
The news conference outside the courthouse was organized by the Tarrant County Coalition, consisting of 30 civic groups, including the Tarrant County Democratic Party, Texas Organizing Project, Texas Civil Rights Project and Justice Network of Tarrant County.
Residents and activists demanded that commissioners approve a list of voting sites with the same number of sites used in 2022: 50 for early voting and 316 for Election Day. They also asked to reinstate specific sites that Ludwig suggested eliminating, such as the Maverick Activity Center at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Thirty miles east, Dallas County commissioners are also considering 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.
The public comment period for residents to weigh in on the proposal started at about 12:30 p.m. More than 200 people signed up to speak at the meeting, a county staffer told the Report.
Fort Worth resident Jill Deramus told commissioners the right to vote is about democracy, not politics. Elected officials should honor and protect that right, she added.
“I’d like to know: Why is there so much resistance to making it easy for eligible Americans to vote?” Deramus said. “As Americans, we should be concerned about our neighbors’ rights to vote as much as our own.”
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, County Judge Tim 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.”
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.”
Democratic commissioners Alisa Simmons and Roderick Miles oppose the plan, saying it still does not offer enough sites for a county of Tarrant’s size. They both expressed concerns that reducing sites could disenfranchise voters by making it harder to vote.
“A growing county should not be shrinking its access to democracy,” Miles said in a news release last week. “County officials are stewards of the electoral process, not its owners, and our responsibility is to ensure every eligible resident — including seniors, people with disabilities, working families and residents without transportation — has a fair opportunity to vote.”
Simmons, O’Hare’s opponent on the November ballot, 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.
“Dropping 92 Election Day polling places is crazy,” Simmons said. “We should not compare this proposal to the worst proposal. We should compare it to access that Tarrant County voters actually had in 2022.”
Election Day is Nov. 3, and early voting is Oct. 19-30. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 5.
This is a developing story.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org.
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