Voters in battleground Texas county face longer waits after GOP slashed polling places

Voters in a critical Texas swing county voted undeterred Tuesday despite Republicans slashing a third of the polling places, causing long lines in some locations.

The Lone Star State’s U.S. Senate race is one of the most closely watched in the country. If Republicans lose their grip on a seat they’ve held for decades, Tarrant County – with its 1.2 million voters  – could prove pivotal.

Republicans ripped up their congressional maps at President Donald Trump’s behest to draw five more GOP-leaning districts. However, that shaved Republicans’ margins for victory, leaving Texas voters to bear the brunt of GOP efforts to restrict voting.

“I’m here because they closed the convenient voting location at my kids’ school that I voted at last year, because the Republican county-level folks don’t think that I should have a voice,” Rainer Sigwald, a Tarrant County voter, told Democracy Docket after casting his ballot Tuesday at Texas Christian University’s campus polling location. “And I look forward to voting against them, as well as in other larger national races.” 

Tarrant County, once a safe GOP stronghold, has become the state’s major battleground county, with a growing minority population that votes increasingly Democratic. Republican local officials responded this year by slashing Election Day polling places by 30% — to the frustration of community members who had to make other plans to vote. 

Sigwald had planned to vote before work on Tuesday, but the line was too long, and he decided to cast his ballot during the afternoon lull instead.

“I can do that because I have a super flexible job, which is great. But not everybody has that kind of flexibility,” Sigwald said, adding that Tarrant County voters need more polling locations, not fewer. 

During the morning rush, 18 polling locations had a one-hour wait and another eight had a wait closer to two hours, according to the Tarrant County elections website.

Sigwald called national Republicans’ allegations of widespread illegal voting “nonsense” and said he was highly motivated to vote in the midterms. 

“A lot of the future of the U.S. and the world is at stake today,” Sigwald said, “and I think it’s important to have some say in that.”

TCU student Joel Umana, cast a ballot for the first time Tuesday. 

“It’s a very complex climate right now,” Umana said. “I think there’s a lot of concerns about inflation and affordability. Being a broke college student, that matters a lot to me.”

Despite GOP accusations about voter fraud in the midterms, Umana said he has confidence in voting and thinks his vote will matter. 

“I trust the voting system,” he said.