TARRANT COUNTY, Texas — UPDATE: Tarrant County Commissioners have moved to keep all early voting locations open.
Controversy is growing surrounding a potential plan to eliminate some early voting locations on college campuses in Tarrant County.
The issue has come to the forefront following a failed vote last week to approve a list of early polling sites.
On Thursday, the Tarrant County Commissioners Court will consider new versions of the list, which have sparked controversy among critics who called it “voter suppression.”
The original list had 50 locations, but the various versions of the lists under consideration on Thursday include eliminating early voting sites at UT Arlington, the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and two Tarrant County College campuses.
Precinct 2 Commissioner Alisa Simmons voiced opposition to the potential closure of several early-voting locations
“It’s classic voter suppression,” Simmons said. “UTA is a majority-minority school population. It’s about access. Why would county leaders want to prevent or erect roadblocks to voting?”
Simmons expressed frustration over the process for considering new versions of the list. In an interview with WFAA, Simmons, a Democrat said she and Commissioner Roy Brooks will be out of town during Thursday’s special meeting called by O’Hare.
According to Simmons, the court authorized their travel to Washington, D.C. more than a month ago, but the special meeting was called last week.
“It’s an attempt to omit the two commissioners that represent large minority voting populations,” Simmons said.
In a statement to WFAA, O’Hare said in part:
“This latest outcry is yet another example of Democrats misleading voters… Tarrant County voters won’t be fooled by liberal misinformation and scare tactics.”
Simmons said she still plans to phone into tomorrow’s meeting and said it will disrupt her face-to-face meeting with officials in the White House.
“We need to know the methodology that the county used to designate the polling locations for both election day and early voting,” Simmons said.
Last week, a vote to approve early voting sites failed. During the meeting, Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare called some college campus voting sites “a waste of money and manpower.”
“I think the purpose of choosing locations to vote is to give the biggest access to the public, and some of these campuses do not provide the best access to the public," O’Hare said.
However, early voting data from the 2020 presidential elections show that nearly 10% of voters who voted early in Tarrant County cast their ballot at college campuses. In all 65,975 voters cast their ballots at college campuses in Tarrant County.
Tarrant County Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig said more early voting sites were needed during last week’s meeting.
"This election, we struggled finding locations. We're actually three less than we were in 2020,” Ludwig said.
According to voting data from Tarrant County elections, about 66,000 voters cast their ballots on college campuses. Nearly 10% of the county's 666,505 total early voters.
Early voting begins 40 days from Wednesday.