Election day’s here. How big are crowds at Tarrant County polls and is voting safe?
Election day is finally here.
Whether you think it’s a day of reckoning, a day to celebrate democracy or a day you just want to be over with, here are some things to expect at Fort Worth-area polling places Tuesday.
Will voting be safe?
Election officials say they haven’t had to step up law enforcement efforts at Tarrant County polling sites, although there have been reports of voter intimidation efforts at some sites.
Over the weekend at the Griffin Subcourthouse on Miller Avenue in southeast Fort Worth, some residents reported that Trump supporters were swarming the area in vehicles and attempting to intimidate some voters.
On Monday, the Fort Worth Police Department posted a statement on Twitter explaining that they were called to the scene to diffuse the situation.
“In an effort to deescalate the situation, officers entered the crowd to allow the surrounded vehicles to exit the area without any further altercations,” police said in the statement. “At no time were Fort Worth officers escorting vehicles into any areas to allow any type of voter intimidation. Our goal is to keep everyone safe, including from fear and intimidation, while exercising their First Amendment rights.”
Heider Garcia, Tarrant County election administrator, said there would be no extra security at voting locations on Tuesday. Three weeks of early voting went with few security-related problems, and he anticipates Tuesday will be no different.
“Rallies have a different spirit, a different emotion,” Garcia said. “People have been very respectful at the polling place.”
Garcia said it’s up to city or county officials if they want to add extra security or protocols outside of the elections office jurisdiction.
How crowded will poll sites be?
Voters will be able to visit any of 331 election sites running in Tarrant County on Tuesday — about six times more than the number of polling places available during early voting. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Voters can visit the Tarrant County election website for live information on wait times at voting centers. Tarrant County residents can now vote at any voting center, regardless of where in the county they live.
Already, a record-smashing 732,922 people have voted in Tarrant County — including those who voted in-person at early voting sites, and those who cast absentee ballots by mail.
Garcia said he expects that up to another 200,000 people could vote on election day.
“Seeing that every number from 2016 has been outpaced, I wouldn’t be surprised if we got more than 200,000,” Garcia told the county ballot board on Monday.
When will results be ready?
The outcome of many of the races on the ballot probably will be determined before most Tarrant County residents go to bed on Tuesday night, although it’s possible that some races will still be up in the air.
The results of nearly early voting and mail-in ballots will be released after polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday — with a small number of exceptions, Garcia said. That early voting total includes 666,752 people who voted at in-person early voting sites, and 66,170 people who have returned their ballots by mail.
However, of those 66,170 mail-in ballots (and any other mail-in ballots that trickle in before the end of the day on Tuesday), an estimated 17,000 to 18,000 probably won’t be accepted by the elections office’s sorting machinery because of a printing problem discovered last week.
Those 17,000 to 18,000 ballots will have to be redone manually by election workers, a process that likely will take many hours on Tuesday night and possibly Wednesday as well, Garcia said.
Even so, since the total of flawed mail-in ballots is only expected to be about 2% of the total ballots cast, the outcome likely will only affect a small number of extremely close races.
Also, late-arriving mail-in ballots, votes from overseas residents and ballots from military voters can be counted for several days after an election.
Election officials have increased pay for election workers, and will provide food for them throughout the day, Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said. He also said that county officials would even look into providing rides for election workers to and from their homes, for any workers who have concerns about driving in the middle of the night.
“If we’re asking somebody to work through the night and they don’t want to drive,” Whitley said Monday during a ballot board meeting, “we’ll do whatever we have to do to get them in.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
