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A plan in one of Texas’ largest counties to use dozens fewer polling locations than in previous years came to a vote on Tuesday, drawing protests from Democrats who say the reductions could create confusion in the November midterm elections.
County commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of the plan following hours of public comment and heckling from opponents.
The plan calls for 92 fewer polling locations than were used during the 2022 midterm elections. Democrats argued the reduction would disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities.
The proposal voted on Tuesday reduces the number of polling locations across booming Tarrant County, which borders Dallas and includes Fort Worth. County officials say the plan would save resources by eliminating low-turnout sites, noting voters would still have more than 200 locations where they could cast ballots.
“This list meets the requirements and recommendations that I received from the court,” Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig told Commissioners.
As Commissioners debated the proposal, emotions boiled over.
Opponents in the audience held up signs saying “shame.”
Two people were kicked out for disorderly conduct, speaking out of turn.
Commissioners were split down party lines, Democrats saying the plan disproportionately affects poor and minority communities.
“What I hold in my hand, and I want y’all to get this, is my wife’s great grandmother’s poll tax receipt,” said Commissioner Roderick Miles, Jr. “At the end of the day, we are instituting barriers to making access to voters. It’s modern day poll taxes. And I’m not trying to use hyperbole. This is reality.”
“You and I know y’all wanted 93 in one, because it’s the bluest precinct in the county. And we all know why you only wanted 70 in precinct 4, because it’s a larger geographic area and it’s the reddest part of the county,” responded Judge Tim O’Hare. “So when we’re saying we want it to be fair across the precincts, there’s no argument you can make other than you want to have more in your precinct, and so I don’t think that’s a fair way to do it.”
Texas’ third-largest county is home to more than 2 million people and is a key battleground in the U.S. Senate race between Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. On Sunday, Talarico urged the county to reject the proposal.
“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 at a news conference.
Tarrant County now has 92 fewer polling locations on Election Day than it did during the 2022 midterms.
Closing polling locations in Texas is not a new trend, county election officials say. The trend has been accelerated by an embrace of countywide voting sites and the difficulty in recruiting poll workers. Other Texas counties have also considered or already reduced the number of polling locations for November, while some have added more.
“We’re clearly not trying to suppress the vote,” Rep. Matt Shaheen, the Republican chairman of the House Elections Committee, said of polling site reductions in Texas. “That’s a silly accusation.”
County says plan eliminates low-turnout sites
Tarrant County Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig has said the reductions would allow the county to eliminate locations that serve few people.
Locations near bus stops that complied with federal accessibility laws were prioritized to remain open, according to a county statement. Officials said the average distance between Election Day sites under the plan was 1.5 miles.
“All of this is accomplished without the wasteful practice of placing polling sites directly across the street from one other,” said Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare, a Republican and the county’s top administrator.
Spokespeople for Paxton did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Texas counties determine the number of polling locations
Texas law lets each of the state’s 254 counties decide how many polling places to use. Tarrant County adopted countywide voting in 2019 but didn’t immediately begin reducing the number of polling locations.
On Friday, the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union joined voting rights groups in signing a letter urging the county to reject the proposal, saying the closures would be strongly felt in areas with high percentages of minority voters. About a third of the county’s residents are Hispanic, and about 19.2% are Black, according to Census data.
Bastrop County Elections Administrator Kristin Miles, whose county is outside Austin, said reducing the number of polling sites could make sense, depending on how heavily they are used. Miles noted that there would be little point, for instance, in opening sites in rural areas that may only serve a handful of voters throughout the day.
Carol Raburn, who worked the March primaries as an election judge in Tarrant County, called the proposal a form of voter suppression.
“Because what happens when people don’t have a convenient place to go vote that’s not too far away from where they are, where they live? They just don’t go vote because they’ve made it so difficult,” she said.
Wilder is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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| # | Наименование новости | Тональность | Информативность | Дата публикации |
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| 1 | Temp. injunction denied in lawsuit to restore Tarrant Co. polling locations for midterms | 0 | 6.66 | 13-10-2026 |
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| 4 | Nine charged in illegal voting investigation in Tarrant County, DOJ says | 0 | 5.16 | 15-09-2026 |
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| 9 | Texas’s Senate Primary Has Already Made History—and It’s Not Over Yet | 0 | 5 | 05-03-2026 |
| 10 | “GOP-controlled local boards restrict voting on Sundays and find other ways to make voting harder” | 0 | 7.51 | 16-10-2026 |