Voters are right to question Tarrant County's polling site reductions

Tarrant County commissioners this month met to consider reducing the number of polling places for the upcoming midterm elections. Resident after resident took the microphone to address County Judge Tim O'Hare and his fellow commissioners, with many speaking out against the proposal. Despite testimony from members of the community that stretched on for hours, the commissioners voted to eliminate some polling places. The adopted list has 224 voting sites for Election Day and 47 early voting locations. In 2022, there were 316 Election Day sites and 50 early voting locations. While the approved plan that slashes 92 Election Day sites is less drastic than the 140 cuts originally proposed in August, voters' concerns are hardly misplaced. In a statement, O'Hare said, 'I said publicly when the first version came before this Court that it didn't have enough locations, and I asked our staff to go back and fix that, and they did.' The county did restore some locations, but that doesn't change the scale of the final reductions. Tarrant County will have about 30% fewer Election Day voting sites than it did during the 2022 midterms. Framing the revised plan as an improvement is a low bar. In 2022, the University of Texas at Arlington had an early voting location on campus. That location has been eliminated this year. The closest early voting and Election Day voting location to UTA is now the Arlington Subcourthouse, a little over a mile away from the activity center on campus where students could previously vote. This might not seem like far to travel, but for busy students, many of whom might not have cars, venturing off campus makes voting more of a hassle. Determined students might make the roughly 30-minute walking trek to the courthouse, but others who were encouraged to participate because voting was convenient on campus may be less inclined to do so this year. Meanwhile, Texas Christian University will have an Election Day voting location at one of its student unions. If TCU students can vote on campus, shouldn't UTA students be able to as well? We should encourage students and young people to vote, especially given the big-ticket races in November, including contests for U.S. Senate, governor, Texas Senate District 9 and county offices. Eliminating polling places on college campuses makes this more difficult. And voters have every reason to be skeptical. In 2023, the Texas Tribune reported that O'Hare said he was encouraged by the potential for low turnout in that year's upcoming elections. These past remarks make it hard to take O'Hare at his word when he says these reductions are simply intended to eliminate redundant locations. Even if some consolidation is reasonable, the sites selected for cuts demand a more convincing justification than county leaders have offered.