Texas Democrats are condemning a plan to close down 92 polling sites in one of the state’s most populous counties.
Commissioners in Tarrant County, which has a population of more than 2.1 million, plan to vote on the proposal Tuesday, a week after shelving a different plan to cut 140 polling locations in the county as heated protests erupted at the commission meeting. Republicans hold a 3-2 majority on the commissioners court.
The county had 316 polling locations during the 2022 midterms, but the new proposal would send the county into the 2026 elections with only 224.
Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico spoke out against the plan at a news conference alongside Alisa Simmons, a Tarrant County commissioner.
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“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 said, according to The Associated Press.
The Democratic nominee also said that cutting the number of polling sites could lead to lower turnout in what’s expected to be a critical midterm elections season for Texas — with both Democrats and Republicans viewing Talarico’s Senate race against Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton as a must win.
“The problem is when we let voting rights become a partisan issue,” Talarico said, according to KERA News. “That’s when we walk down a very dangerous path in this country.”
Simmons, a Democrat who is running for Tarrant County judge, a position leading the commissioners court, also decried the proposal and called on the commission to reject the plan.
“Dropping 92 Election Day polling places is crazy,” Simmons said, according to KERA News. “We should not compare this proposal to the worst proposal. We should compare it to access that Tarrant County voters actually had in 2022.”
Simmons is also calling on Tarrant County voters to sign a petition to, “Tell the court to protect our polling places.”
Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare said the proposal would help eliminate polling locations that serve fewer members of the community compared to other sites.
“All of this is accomplished without the wasteful practice of placing polling sites directly across the street from one other,” O’Hare, a Republican and the county’s top administrator, said, according to The Associated Press.
The updated list of 92 polling locations has drawn similar public outcry from the community and from national voting-rights groups.
The Legal Defense Fund, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Campaign Legal Center among others, sent a letter Friday urging Tarrant County to reject the proposal to cut the number of sites.
The letter argued that the proposal would disproportionately impact areas in the county with a high percentage of Black, Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander voters — echoing the concern from Texas Democrats and community members about the plan’s potential harm to minority communities.
“Eliminating almost one-third of Tarrant County’s poll sites just weeks before the general election would not only be grossly irresponsible but would reflect a profound betrayal of the voters the Tarrant County Commissioners Court is meant to serve,” Demetria McCain, director of policy at the Legal Defense Fund, wrote in a statement. “This proposal is a voter suppression tactic designed to impede Black voters and other voters of color from exercising their right to vote at the polls.”
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