Talarico, Simmons say amended list of Tarrant voting sites still falls short

Rachel Royster, Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Aug 30, 2026

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Tarrant County voter access is still being threatened though the proposed cut to polling locations isn’t as deep as initially suggested, Commissioner Alisa Simmons said Sunday afternoon alongside House Rep. James Talarico.

Last month, Tarrant County Commissioners Court members unanimously agreed the significant slash to the November midterm voting sites proffered by Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig was too drastic. They asked him to come back to the court with more locations, though the court members’ wishes varied on how many should be on the list.

Initially, the list included 176 Election Day sites and 42 for early voting. Now, the proposal is 224 Election Day locations and 47 early voting sites. Both offerings are cuts compared to the 316 Election Day and 50 early voting sites Tarrant County had for the 2022 midterm election.

The commissioners court is scheduled to discuss the new proposal on Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the county administration building.

Though more sites have been added to the original list, the new version is a significant reduction as well, Simmons said.

“Now, some people may hear 224 and think this problem has been fixed because at our Aug. 4 meeting, the original proposal proposed 176 election day locations,” Simmons said. “It has not been fixed. Dropping 92 election day polling places is crazy. We should not compare this proposal to the worst proposal.”

Simmons, who is a Democrat, said it’s unacceptable to have the third-largest county in Texas reducing the number of voting sites when the other four largest counties aren’t.

Finding eligible and willing election polling sites has become more difficult recently, in part due to legislative action requiring more from the voting locations. Simmons suggested each commissioner help find more locations in their precincts instead of relying on the election administration.

“Our question should be, as elected officials of the Tarrant County Commissioners Court, how do we make voting easier for every eligible Tarrant County voter,” Simmons said. “It should not be how can we eliminate or slash polling locations in our county.”

The news conference Sunday was held in front of the University of Texas at Arlington Maverick Activity Center, a former polling location. Simmons said the site should be added to the list because of the access it provides to voters on campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Simmons said the goal for every election should be to make voting convenient and accessible.

“I don’t know how the people of Tarrant County will vote, and frankly, that’s none of my business how folks cast their ballot,” Simmons said. “My responsibility as a county commissioner is to help ensure that they have reasonable access, convenient access to a place where they can vote, familiar access, places that they have gone for years. Republican, Democrat, Independent, it doesn’t matter the party.”

Talarico, an Austin Democrat running for U.S. Senate, said the most powerful people in Tarrant County and the United States want to close down polling locations because “nothing terrifies them more than people who show up to vote and people who show up to hold elected officials accountable.”