A proposed change in Tarrant County would leave voters with 92 fewer Election Day polling locations than during the 2022 midterms.
ABC News Politics reported that Democrats are protesting the plan ahead of the November midterm elections.
The proposal is scheduled for a vote Tuesday and would eliminate sites that county officials say attract relatively few voters. Tarrant County borders Dallas and includes Fort Worth.
Officials say voters would still have more than 200 places to cast ballots under the proposal. The county says the reduction would conserve resources while retaining sites near bus stops and locations that meet federal accessibility laws.
Under the plan, the average distance between Election Day locations would be 1.5 mile (2.4 kilometers), according to county officials. Tarrant County Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig has said the changes would remove locations serving few people.
Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare, the county’s top administrator, has defended the plan as a way to avoid placing polling sites directly across the street from one another.
Political opposition
The proposal has become an issue in a competitive U.S. Senate race involving Democratic state Rep. James Talarico and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Talarico urged the county on Sunday to reject the proposal.
Spokespeople for Paxton did not respond to requests for comment sent by email.
Voting-rights groups, including the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union, signed a Friday letter opposing the plan. The groups said the closures would have a strong effect in areas with high percentages of minority voters.
Census data cited in the report show that about a third of Tarrant County residents are Hispanic and about 19.2% are Black. Carol Raburn, an election judge during the March primaries in Tarrant County, characterized the proposal as voter suppression.
Countywide voting
Texas law gives each of the state’s 254 counties authority to determine how many polling places to operate. The county adopted countywide voting in 2019, although it did not immediately start cutting locations.
Matt Shaheen, the Republican chairman of the House Elections Committee, said reductions elsewhere in Texas were not intended to suppress voting. Bastrop County Elections Administrator Kristin Miles said reducing sites can be practical when locations are lightly used, including in rural areas serving only a handful of voters.