Community and advocacy groups in Tarrant County, Texas, are rallying to get voters to the polls after county officials shut down dozens of early and Election Day polling locations weeks before the 2026 midterms.
The county’s five-member Commissioner’s Court voted in September to cut 92 polling locations — from 316 in the 2022 midterm elections to 224 this year — and the decision caused an uproar in the community.
Tarrant County, which is located in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, is the biggest county in the state of Texas that President Donald Trump won in the 2024 presidential election with 51.86% of the vote, state election data shows. The county has been competitive in recent years — Joe Biden won it in the 2020 presidential election by 49.31% of the vote.
The three Republicans on the court backed the proposal, arguing the poll sites were underutilized, while the two Democrats rejected it.
Republican county Commissioner Matt Krause, who voted for the cuts, told ABC News the number of locations complies with state law and ensure that “we don’t have polling places clustered together so we’re making efficient use of our polling sites.”
Estella Williams, who leads the Tarrant County-Fort Worth chapter of the NAACP, told ABC News that the civil rights organization has launched a campaign to inform voters of the changes and assist them in getting to the polls.
“Everyone should be given an opportunity to be able to have access to the polls without having to battle,” said Williams. “It is a situation that has affected the marginalized communities.”
Who could be impacted?
In Tarrant County, an analysis done in September by the data team of ABC News and ABC’s owned television stations found that 21 ZIP codes with more than 75% non-white residents lost 37 polling sites between the 2022 midterm and this year. Those 21 ZIP codes make up about 30% of Tarrant County, but 40% of the county’s polling place losses were in those areas.
Republicans like Krause argued that the cuts would save money because some locations were underutilized. Meanwhile, Democrats argued that the reduction would disproportionately impact poor communities of color and could cause confusion and disruption.
“You’ve got families who’ve been voting at some of these locations that have been removed for decades,” the county’s Democratic Commissioner Roderick Miles, Jr. told ABC News. “And when you remove a place that’s convenient for the residents to vote, that presents barriers.”
According to the ABC News/OTV analysis, in ZIP code 76010, which is 86% non-white and has a median household income of $45,466, Election Day polling places fell from eight in 2022 to three this year, with no new or relocated sites. And in ZIP code 76119, which is 93% non-white and has a median household income of $51,267, sites fell from nine to three, also without replacements. Overall, the population in Tarrant County is about 58% non-white, and median household income is about $84,207.
Williams told ABC News that she and a group of volunteers have launched a phone banking campaign to call and text registered voters, who previously voted at sites that have shut down to inform them of the polling locations available in their communities.
“Frustration is going to come about when those persons show up [at those closed polling sites],” Williams said. “We have been making personal phone calls to individuals in the community, letting them know everything about the early voting activities.”
Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare, who backed closing the polling sites, defended the move in a statement to ABC News last month and said that 54 of the 224 polling locations available on Election Day exceeds the statutory minimum.
“All of this is accomplished without the wasteful practice of placing polling sites directly across the street from one another,” O’Hare said. “Every voter deserves a safe, accessible location with secure equipment, and this plan does that.”
Election officials reported as of Thursday evening that in Tarrant County early voting turnout after the first week this year was up 63% over first week totals in the 2022 midterm elections. But according to ABC affiliate WFAA in Dallas, although voters turned out in large numbers, many found themselves waiting in long lines for hours.
Williams said the NAACP partnered with Trinity Metro, which provides public transportation in the area, to ensure that residents who don’t have access to cars get free roundtrip bus rides to the polls during early voting and on Election Day.
“We’re wanting to try to make sure that the democratic process is adhered to, and that each person should have a right, if eligible, to cast their votes,” she said.
Why Tarrant County matters
According to Keith Gaddie, a professor of political science at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, the move to shut down those polling locations was particularly controversial because Tarrant County, which had “a tradition of Republican voting for the last couple of decades,” has come to be considered more of a “swingy” region after it backed Biden for president in 2020.
“It became competitive at the presidential level when Joe Biden was elected in 2020. Joe Biden actually won Tarrant County, which was a bit of a surprise,” Gaddie said.
According to Gaddie, keeping Tarrant Republican is not only key to winning statewide races, but also key for Republicans to maintain their control of both chambers in Congress.
“You cannot have a Republican majority in Congress without dominating Texas. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
According to WFAA, Republican and Democratic Tarrant County leaders said they have been working to make sure voters know where they can cast their ballots.
“Turnout is so important,” said Tarrant County Republican Party Chair Tim Davis. The county’s Democratic Party Chair Allison Campolo added: “We are chasing every single voter.”
Texans have not been represented by a Democrat in the Senate for 33 years, but as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton faces off against Democrat James Talarico in what polls have shown to be a competitive race, Democrats say this could be the year this changes.
“If you let Texas get back in play, Republicans got national political problems,” Gaddie said. “And if the Senate [seat] goes over, that creates the possibility of Texas even being in play for the presidential race in two years.”
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