Overview
- The five-member Tarrant County Commissioners Court voted 3-2 on Tuesday to approve a new map that reduces Election Day polling locations from 316 in 2022 to 224 and sets 47 early-voting sites for November.
- Republican commissioners backed the plan as a move to eliminate low-turnout or noncompliant sites and save resources, while Democratic commissioners argued the county is shrinking voter access in a fast-growing jurisdiction.
- More than 100 people spoke during an eight-hour Sept. 1 meeting, hundreds rallied outside the courthouse, and earlier public hearings produced heated exchanges and at least one arrest of a speaker.
- National and local civil-rights groups including the NAACP, ACLU of Texas, LDF and the Campaign Legal Center sent letters warning that many closed sites are clustered in majority-minority neighborhoods and on college campuses, and they urged the court to reconsider or face legal scrutiny.
- Texas law gives counties broad discretion over polling sites and Tarrant adopted countywide voting in 2019, but critics say the cuts could lengthen travel times, increase lines for voters without cars, and become a flashpoint in the county’s pivotal Senate race.