Tarrant County, Texas is the third most populous county in the state, with more than 2 million residents. Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, county officials have approved a significant reduction in the number of Election Day polling locations.
On September 1, the Tarrant County Commissioners Court voted 3-2 to reduce the number of Election Day polling sites by 92 sites compared with the 2022 midterm elections. The county will have 224 vote centers in 2026, down from 316 in 2022. Early voting locations will also decrease from 50 to 47. One of the locations removed from the list is the Maverick Activity Center at the University of Texas at Arlington.
The vote was initially scheduled for the August 4 Commissioners Court meeting. However, the meeting was delayed after dozens of residents spoke against the proposed reduction. The meeting became heated, and attendees were removed from the courtroom. Former state Rep. Lon Burnam was arrested after refusing to leave when ordered to do so.
County Judge Tim O’Hare and Commissioners Matt Krause and Manny Ramirez, all Republicans, voted for the final proposal. Their reasoning included buildings not meeting ADA accessibility requirements, cutting costs of low turnout sites, and saving $1 million in taxpayer money.
Opponents have raised concerns about how the reduction could affect access to voting. The NAACP, ACLU, and other voting rights groups joined together in a letter expressing the impacts the closures would have on areas with high percentages of minority voters.
Democratic Commissioners Alisa Simmons and Rodrick Miles Jr. voted against the proposal. Democratic State Rep. James Talarico has spoken out against the reduction.
At a press conference at the University of Texas at Arlington, Talarico said, “We’re here fighting for the rights of everybody. The problem is when we let voting rights become a partisan issue. That’s when we walk down a very dangerous path in this country.”
Tarrant County has more that 1.3 million registered voters and a diverse demographic makeup of 40% white, 31% Hispanic and Latino, 19% Black and 7% Asian. This new proposal brings into question the barriers that legislation creates in disenfranchising voters, specifically marginalized communities.
Research from the Pew Research Center shows differences in political affiliation across racial and ethnic groups, with Black and Hispanic voters more likely than white voters to identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party. However, political affiliation alone does not establish that a particular change to voting administration will disproportionately affect voters of a particular party.
The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act was reintroduced in Congress in 2025. The legislation would restore and expand federal voting-rights protections, including by establishing a new formula for identifying jurisdictions with patterns of voting discrimination and requiring advance public notice of certain voting changes.
Across the state, Texans are being placed on a voter suspension list to further suppress votes. For the November 3 election, early voting will take place from October 19 through October 30, and the voter registration deadline is October 5. To ensure your registration and learn more about voting, visit vote411.org/feminist.