Tarrant County approves early voting sites on college campuses after intense debate
A heated struggle over early voting location sites played out in the Tarrant County Commissioners Court on Thursday.
After more than four hours of public comments and dozens of speakers, the court voted 4-1 to approve a list of 51 early voting sites that included several college campuses that County Judge Tim O’Hare wanted removed.
The approved list included early voting sites at UT Arlington, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and four Tarrant County College campuses, many of which had been removed from revised lists presented to the court.
Supporters cheered loudly after the measure passed, with O’Hare casting the only opposing vote.
Democratic Commissioners Roy Charles Brooks and Alisa Simmons were in Washington, D.C., for an event by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. The travel was approved by the commissioners on Aug. 6. Both voted remotely via video call.
O’Hare said that he was unaware of their planned absence. He said he asked County Administrator Chandler Merritt to reach out to the commissioners to ask if they could attend, but that Simmons did not respond.
During a short recess, Merritt confirmed that Simmons did indeed inform him that she would be out of town. A county spokesperson later clarified that Merritt was unable to reach Simmons for a later inquiry about adding early voting sites to Thursday’s agenda.
Simmons’ office contested that assertion, saying that the commissioner has been in “constant communication” with county administration about the meeting.
O’Hare also said that Brooks said he did not care if the voting sites lists were voted on at the special meeting on Thursday or at the regular meeting on Tuesday.
A representative for Brooks said that claim was false and that he had said he would prefer to have waited until Tuesday.
Tarrant County Election Administrator Clint Ludwig explained to the commissioners that his team had difficulty finding a sufficient number of locations for early voting and election day sites. He told the commissioners on Sept. 4 that he would ideally like to have 60 to 70 early voting locations in the county to avoid long lines and ensure all voters cast their ballots.
“We’re trying to get everybody equal access,” he said.
But his office, which he noted has already conducted five elections so far this year, does not have the resources for his recommended number of locations, so they looked at sites within 1.5 miles of each other and eliminated the one with lower turnout.
A list of 50 early voting sites that he presented for approval last week failed along party lines. Three new lists with fewer sites were on Thursday’s agenda.
But Ludwig announced while speaking to commissioners that he had sent O’Hare and the commissioners on Wednesday a new list that included the 50 sites on the original list that was rejected, as well as one extra site.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Manny Ramirez motioned to vote on the 51-site list, and Simmons seconded.
O’Hare presented statistics on turnout for voters aged 18 to 25, saying only 5.74% of them voted in the 2022 midterm elections. Data from the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas show that 43% of college-age Texans cast ballots in the 2020 general election.
O’Hare also noted that the early voting location at the Arlington Sub-Courthouse is a little less than a mile away from the UT Arlington site.
“I’ve heard all the chatter about voter suppression, if there’s actual voter suppression going on from requiring a college kid who may not be registered in Tarrant County to walk the equivalent of about six tenths of a mile to vote, and that you’re suppressing their vote if you don’t allow it is the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard,” O’Hare said.
After public comments, O’Hare said he thought that people’s concerns for college students’ ability to make it to sites off campus were unfounded, and asked Ramirez if he wanted to amend his motion to vote on the 51-site list.
Ramirez declined, affirming his faith in the work of the election administrator and stating “these sites have been approved for decades.”
Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Ramirez said it was a “common sense measure” for him to vote to approve the sites.
“I didn’t understand the need to shift at the last moment,” he said, adding that he respects his colleagues’ perspectives, this was “a very easy decision.”
One perspective that O’Hare has expressed in the past is that low voter turnout is good for Republicans in Tarrant County.
When asked if he shares that opinion, Ramirez said, “Absolutely not. I think that we need as much turnout as possible.”
At the beginning of the meeting, O’Hare said he would speak with reporters after it adjourned, but he left without speaking to the press.
Public comments straddled both sides of the issue
The move received fierce opposition and support from dozens of citizens who spoke during the public comments section.
Supporters of the removal of the campus early voting sites said they were a waste of money and unfairly favored a small sector of the voting population, while opponents decried the move as voter suppression.
Just under 10,000 people voted on the UT Arlington campus during early voting in the 2020 general election. The university is majority-minorty, with white students making up just 22% of the student body. Hispanic students are the majority at 32%
“My philosophy on allocating resources is, where do we get the most bang for the buck?,” said Tarrant GOP Chair Bo French, adding that college student bodies do not have large segments of registered voters. He also brought up parking issues. “Let’s have early voting locations that are accessible to the widest number of people.”
UT Arlington is the “single most problematic” early voting location in the county, French said, adding that university officials “don’t seem to be interested in following electioneering laws or helping enforce those things.”
Arlington resident Carol Raburn is a UT Arlington graduate and election judge who has worked the voting location at the Arlington Subcourthouse.
“I’ve seen the voting locations. I know these kids. I know the parking decisions. Taking it away doesn’t mean adding more,” she said, urging the court to take the recommendation of County Election Administrator Clint Ludwig to approve more locations.
Addressing O’Hare’s statement that early voting sites on college campuses ignore the larger voting block composed of senior citizens, Raburn urged the court to increase public transportation in Arlington. Lack of reliable public transportation “probably more intimidating and restricting for seniors than anything else.”
State Rep. Nate Schatzline, a Republican from Fort Worth, echoed O’Hare’s concerns for senior citizen voters, citing the apparent lack of senior centers on the lists of early voting sites.
“Rather than prioritizing sites that are actually going to help reduce voter suppression, such as our senior citizen centers all across Tarrant County, we are giving into what really is just a political plot from our failed news sources … to attack our great elected officials,” he said.
Laura Leeman, a Democrat running for the Precinct 3 Commissioner position, said that “having fewer places for people to vote creates chaos and confusion for any voter.”
She and two other Democratic candidates Wednesday threatened to sue the county in the event that it eliminated sites from college campuses.
“This is not only about 10,000 voters having access. This is about any one voter not having access,” Leeman added. “Voting is a civic duty, while voter suppression is unpatriotic. What affects one of us, affects all of us.”
Similar to speakers at a press conference on UT Arlington campus on Wednesday, Arlington resident Relius Johnson couched the removal of the college sites in a historical context.
“Let’s talk about equity. That must be our guiding principle … In our history … what was considered fair and equal has always been flawed in the United States,” he said. “ The idea of separate equal was once seen as a novel solution, yet it perpetrated the deep inequities of the gods of fairness.”
Arlington resident Carol Raburn and Fort Worth residents Katherine Cano and Kay Duffy have experience as election workers. They all spoke in favor of sites on UT Arlington and other college campuses.
Hannah Reed, an employee at the TCC South campus, writing center cast the first vote of her life on the campus in 2016. It gave her “immense senses of belonging and camaraderie and solidarity,” she said, before calling out the lack of adequate public transportation in the metroplex in her support of early voting sites on college campuses.
This story was originally published September 12, 2024 at 2:48 PM.
