Key Texas county votes to cut polling sites ahead of the midterms

Officials in Texas’ third-largest county voted Tuesday to significantly reduce the number of polling sites for this fall’s midterm elections, drawing protests from Democrats and voting rights advocates.Commissioners in Tarrant County, a fast-growing and politically competitive area that includes Fort Worth, approved a plan that results in 92 fewer Election Day polling locations compared with the 2022 midterms. The roughly 30% reduction leaves the county with 224 polling sites to serve 1.3 million voters. Voters in the county are able to cast ballots at any of those polling sites.The three Republicans on the Tarrant County Commissioners Court voted for their plan, while the two Democrats voted against it. Research has found that each additional minute of travel time to a polling location can affect voter participation. The NAACP, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and other groups said in a letter that the changes would hit voters of color hardest because many of the reductions are in majority-minority areas in Fort Worth and Arlington.Supporters of the plan say that it will save money and that there are more than enough options for people to vote.The move comes amid a critical Senate contest in Texas, with Democratic state Rep. James Talarico taking on state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican.Talarico urged the county to reject the plan ahead of Tuesday’s vote.“The most powerful people in this county, the most powerful people in this country, don’t want us to be able to vote easily,” Talarico told reporters Sunday, according to The Associated Press.Tarrant County has emerged as a key political battleground in Texas. President Donald Trump won it in the 2024 presidential race after Joe Biden flipped it four years prior. And Democrats Beto O’Rourke and Colin Allred narrowly carried the county in the 2018 and 2024 Senate races, respectively, even as they both went on to lose. Texas law gives counties the power to decide how many polling sites they use. And some counties have begun using fewer sites as they have moved to countywide voting in recent years. Dozens of voters urged the commissioners to vote against the cuts. Some criticized the elimination of specific polling places — like one at the University of Texas at Arlington — while others noted that the county has experienced significant population growth and voter participation in recent years.“The right to vote is the bedrock of our democracy,” said a woman named Linda Northern. “This will make it harder for brown, Black and low-income voters to have the same right to vote as you do. This is wrong.”Tarrant County Commissioner Roderick Miles Jr., a Democrat, added ahead of the vote, “This is about ensuring that the rights that people bled and died for are accessible to everybody.”Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare, a Republican on the commissioner court, argued that Miles wanted more polling sites in his area. “There’s no argument to that that you can come up with other than you want to be able to have more in your precinct,” O’Hare said.A handful of speakers supported the plan, noting that some sites were used by few voters and required a significant number of poll workers and financial resources.“I support the proposition that’s in front of us as far as reducing the number of voting sites. I’ve been a poll watcher, a poll worker, a precinct chair and all those things, and when you vote, when you go to a poll place that had 34 people all day long, you think this is kind of a waste of resources,” said one speaker, who did not identify herself.