Election day in Fort Worth and Tarrant County is Saturday. Here’s what you need to know
Election day for the municipal and school board elections is Saturday.
Voting locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. People can find voting locations on the county’s website.
A pool of 10 candidates are running to replace Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, who is not seeking reelection after 10 years. Almost 50 are running in eight council districts. Arlington voters will be voting for mayor and four City Council members.
Political experts say the large field makes the race hard to predict. If no candidate gets more than half the vote, the top two will advance to a June 5 runoff.
Southeast Tarrant County residents, including most in Arlington and Mansfield, will vote for Ron Wright’s replacement in Texas’ 6th Congressional District. Wright, an Arlington Republican, died on Feb. 7 after battles with COVID-19 and lung cancer.
There are 11 Republicans, 10 Democrats, an independent and a Libertarian vying for the seat.
Fort Worth, Arlington and Tarrant County College school board races are also on the ballot.
Early voting ended on Tuesday and turnout was just under 8% in Tarrant County, where there are about 1.17 million registered voters. Fort Worth and Tarrant County is notorious for its low voter turnout. There were 91,579 ballots cast during early voting, beating the May 2019 election early voting period. In Fort Worth, there were 32,774 ballots cast out of the city’s 472,006 registered voters.
What to expect at the polls
Expect COVID-19 protocols to be in place just like during early voting.
Poll workers will wear face masks and voters should be distanced. Workers will ask voters to sanitize their hands before and after voting, and equipment will be cleaned every hour.
Voters will not be required to wear masks, just like in the fall elections, but the county recommends everyone wear one.
When coming to the polls, you should bring one of the following photo IDs:
- Texas driver’s license issued by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)
- Texas Election Identification Certificate issued by DPS
- Texas personal identification card issued by DPS
- Texas Handgun License issued by DPS
- United States Military Identification card containing the person’s photograph
- United States Citizenship Certificate containing the person’s photograph
- United States Passport (book or card)
For election information, voters may call the Tarrant County Elections Office at 817-831-8683.
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 2:02 PM.
