Tarrant County gets state approval to use countywide voting sites in 2020 and beyond
State election officials have signed off on letting Tarrant County voters cast ballots at any polling place on Election Day.
This comes after 50.81% of Tarrant voters cast ballots in the Nov. 5 constitutional amendment election outside their home precinct.
“We hereby certify that Tarrant County conducted a successful countywide polling place program in the November 2019 election,” Texas Secretary of State Director of Elections Keith Ingram wrote in a letter to Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley.
“As a result, Tarrant County is authorized to continue to hold its elections using countywide polling places subject to the approval of county commissioners court.”
Tarrant County joins around 60 other counties across Texas in using countywide vote centers that are geared to save money, boost voter turnout and make voting easier by not locking voters in to only one polling place, officials have long said.
“I’m extremely happy, excited” with the state’s decision, said Heider Garcia, Tarrant County’s elections administrator. “We already saw the benefits of the program in November when more than half of voters voted at a site that wasn’t their home-based precinct.
“I’m excited we can now offer this in all the future elections.”
Early voting for the March 3 primary begins Feb. 18.
That’s when Tarrant voters will, for the second time, use new $11 million election machines. The Hart InterCivic Verity machines include a touch screen, paper trail and scanners.
The countywide vote centers could lead to fewer polling places in the future. Under this program, counties may cut the number of polling locations that would have existed under the precinct system by as much as 50%.
But that’s up to top county officials.
For now, Garcia said the number of polling places in 2020 will remain the same, at 340 sites, as there were in the November election.
After the 2020 elections, county commissioners may decide to increase or reduce the number of countywide polling sites.
For now, Garcia reminds voters that they may ask for mail-in ballots as soon as Jan. 1.
And he encourages residents to go to the county’s election website at tarrantcounty.com to check to make sure they are registered to vote in the March primary election.
The deadline to register to vote is Feb. 3.
