Tarrant County expects to have voting sites at college campuses, despite new law
Good news, Tarrant college students.
Voters may get to cast ballots at universities this year.
Initially, it appeared as though voters would no longer be able to cast ballots at colleges, which had served as temporary voting sites. A law that went into effect Sept. 1 eliminated the temporary sites.
But now Tarrant election officials believe there is enough money for colleges to open full-time for the March primary early voting period. That includes TCU, UT Arlington, Tarrant County College, Texas Wesleyan and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
“It looks good,” said Heider Garcia, Tarrant County’s election administrator.
A proposal to allow colleges be full-fledged early voting sites goes before the Tarrant County commissioners Tuesday during their weekly meeting.
“I think they are a good addition,” Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said.
Concerns initially arose that thousands of votes cast on Texas college campuses, including more than 11,000 in Tarrant County in 2018, could be lost because of the new law.
Texas and national Democrats filed a federal lawsuit claiming that requirements of the new state law, such as requiring temporary polling sites to be open for at least eight hours, will lead to lower voter turnout.
The lawsuit filed by the Texas Democratic Party, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, claims the law will affect some of the youngest voters.
Supporters of the law wanted to curb attempts to influence votes, such as using temporary voting sites at schools for school bond elections.
The proposal is to have 49 early voting sites in Tarrant County, which is one more than last year.
The Tarrant proposal would add TCU, UTA, Texas Wesleyan, the UNT Health Science Center and the seminary to the list of early voting sites. Tarrant County College’s Northwest, South and Northeast campuses also are on the list.
Election officials also decided to add Tarrant County College’s Trinity River Campus to the list.
“We wanted to make sure these locations are like any other, with access to the public and adequate parking,” Whitley said.
Primary elections in Texas will be March 3.
Early voting runs From Feb. 18-28.
