Officers in Texas’ third most populous county voted on Tuesday to scale back polling areas by 92.
The transfer will see Tarrant County’s voting websites lowered from 316 within the 2022 midterm elections to 224 for this yr’s elections.
Tuesday’s vote came about throughout a gathering of the five-member Commissioner’s Courtroom, which is the governing body of the county.
The Tarrant County Election Middle is proven in Fort Price, Texas.
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It got here amid public outcry from dozens of residents opposing the measure throughout public conferences over the previous month.
“Folks have fought and died for the fitting to vote,” Tarrant County resident Catherine Godby stated.
She stated it is “unsuitable to suppress” the fitting to vote.
“You are on the unsuitable facet of historical past,” she stated. “You are dishonoring what it means to be an American, and greater than that, you are dropping your humanity.”
Democratic commissioners Alisa Simmons and Rodrick Miles Jr. voted towards the cuts, whereas the Republicans on the courtroom — County Decide Tim O’Hare and commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez — voted for the proposal.
Tarrant County election decide Carol Radburn talks in entrance of a UTA campus voting web site proposed to be closed for upcoming elections in Arlington, Texas, on Aug. 26, 2026.
LM Otero/AP Photograph
The vote on Tuesday got here a yr after the board approved a proposal that minimize almost half of all early voting areas within the county forward of 2025 election, in keeping with Dallas ABC station WFAA.
Republicans in favor of the measure argued that the variety of polling areas after the cuts would nonetheless meet the necessary minimal. In addition they cited efforts to chop prices, citing low voter turnout at numerous polling areas.
O’Hare, who vote for the measure, informed ABC Information in a press release on Monday that below the brand new proposal, there’ll nonetheless be 54 polling locations that exceed the statutory minimal for Election Day.
“The up to date plan averages 2.85 miles between early voting areas and 1.56 miles between Election Day polling areas. All of that is completed with out the wasteful observe of putting polling websites immediately throughout the road from each other,” O’Hare stated.
The county decide stated “some areas modified for sensible causes,” together with some buildings now not working and a few not assembly Individuals with Disabilities Act necessities.
“State regulation additionally requires early voting tools to be saved in a locked room,” he added. “These are legislative necessities, and this county follows them. Each voter deserves a secure, accessible location with safe tools, and this plan does that.”
Miles, one among Democratic commissioners, informed ABC Information in a press release on Monday that he intends to oppose the proposal as a result of it reduces polling areas total.
“Our inhabitants hasn’t shrunk. Our voters hasn’t shrunk. I would like a transparent, convincing rationalization for why a rising county is offering meaningfully fewer locations to vote and I have not gotten one but,” he stated.
“Our job is not to calculate the fewest areas we will legally function. It is to verify each eligible resident has a good and significant alternative to vote. The authorized minimal can’t grow to be the ethical normal,” he added.
Tarrant County, which is within the Dallas-Fort Price space, has greater than 2.2 million residents, in keeping with the U.S. Census Bureau, and 1.3 million registered voters, county data exhibits.
The county, which has a rising Hispanic inhabitants, is about 40% white, 31% Hispanic and Latino, 19% Black and seven% Asian, the 2025 U.S. Census numbers present.
“The minimal is rarely my normal, and it shouldn’t be a normal of a county this dimension,” Simmons, who voted towards the proposal, stated throughout a press convention on Sunday.
Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, proper, speaks with Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons throughout a information convention at UTA, Aug. 30, 2026, in Arlington, Texas.
Lm Otero/AP Photograph
Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate running against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, additionally expressed opposition to the proposal throughout the press convention on Sunday.
“It is almost a 3rd of the polling areas in Tarrant County, and meaning on election day there shall be longer commutes, longer traces and decrease voter turnout, particularly in our Black and brown communities,” he stated.
Krause, who voted for the proposal, pushed again on the argument that lowering voting areas would suppress the vote, telling ABC Information in a press release on Monday that the brand new proposal “unequivocally” offers the entire county’s registered voters the chance to train their Democratic proper.
“There are voting areas inside shut proximity to most everybody in Tarrant County,” he added.
