After outraged voters revolted, Texas battleground county takes up new plan to cut polling locations

Republican officials in a key battleground Texas county are set to vote Tuesday on a revised plan that would cut Election Day polling locations by 30% for the November midterm elections. 

The new proposal they will vote on Tuesday calls for 224 Election Day locations, down from 316 in the 2022 midterms. It also includes 47 early voting locations, down from 50.

Tarrant County commissioners initially considered a plan at their Aug. 4 meeting that would have slashed almost half of the Election Day voting locations and closed eight early voting sites, including some on college campuses. But the GOP officials postponed the final vote to September in the face of considerable outrage from voters. 

Tarrant County, home to Fort Worth, is the 14th largest county in the U.S. Traditionally a safe GOP stronghold, it’s become a crucial bellwether county in Texas 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.

The initial proposal would have reduced Election Day polls from 316 locations in 2022 to just 176 locations this year.

Republicans have good reason to worry about Tarrant County voting.

State Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D), who is running to unseat Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in November, called Tarrant County “ground zero” for Texas elections this year.

Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare (R), who leads the county government, is facing a serious challenger in his own re-election bid: Democratic County Commissioner Alisa Simmons, whose district was dismantled by a mid-decade gerrymander O’Hare spearheaded last year.

Simmons condemned the latest proposal in a social media post Sunday.

“When you look at where those cuts hit the hardest, it’s the same neighborhoods that have always been targeted,” Simmons said. “The ones with the lowest income zip codes, the most Black and Hispanic communities in this county. The places where folks are less likely to have a car.”

At the August meeting, Simmons blasted the massive proposed cut to polls, calling it a “deliberate act to reduce voter access.” 

O’Hare, who claimed he had no involvement in the plan, postponed the decision to Sept. 1 to allow the county’s elections administrator to add more polls to the list.

The proposal drew a furious reaction from voters, who filled the meeting chamber and two overflow rooms. Upset by the public speakers’ comments, O’Hare ordered law enforcement to clear the meeting room. 

Law enforcement officers arrested two members of the public who spoke out against the proposal, charging them with disrupting a meeting. Officers carried former state Rep. Lon Burnam (D) out of the chamber and detained him overnight. Another speaker was arrested for using the word “bulls**t” in his remarks. 

Other local elected officials joined members of the public in opposing the cuts. The Fort Worth City Council voted unanimously to urge Tarrant County officials to open more polls.