In a nutshell
Commissioners approved the locations in a 3-1 vote during a Sept. 4 meeting. County Judge Tim O’Hare provided the dissenting vote, and Commissioner Manny Ramirez was absent for the vote.
The court also unanimously approved a pay raise for election judges and clerks that would take effect Oct. 1. It’s the first pay raise election officials have received since 2021.
Election judges will make $18 an hour, a $3 increase from the pay rates approved in 2021. Election clerks have been bumped to $15 an hour from $13 in 2021.
A closer look
Tarrant County will operate 350 voting centers on Election Day. The list includes locations in Colleyville, Fort Worth, Grapevine, Keller, Roanoke and Southlake, according to the agenda.
O’Hare voted against approval of the locations after expressing concern over the balance of voting centers spread out across county commissioners’ precincts. O’Hare estimated the Precinct 1 chair had 101 voting centers, while the other three had less than 90.
Tarrant County Elections Administrator Clinton Ludwig said the locations listed were selected because they were available and helped the county meet the required number of voter centers.
“I went so far as to visit every commissioner in order to try to get locations in their prospective areas,” he said.
Also on the agenda
Those two actions came after the court denied approval of the county’s early election locations in a 2-2 vote. When a vote is tied, the motion fails. O’Hare and Commissioner Gary Fickes voted against the motion after the court discussed early voting center locations, particularly those located on college campuses.
The proposed list included 50 early voting locations, eight of which are located on college campuses. O’Hare questioned why some voting centers would be located so close to other voting centers.
He highlighted the proposed early voting center at The University of Texas at Arlington, located less than a mile from the Tarrant County Subcourthouse, which would also host an early voting center. Voting centers on college campuses don’t seem very accessible for the public either, O’Hare said.
“I do see that it is definitely an attempt to get more students to vote,” he said. “I don’t believe that’s the role of the Commissioners Court to go make sure we get more of this group to vote or more of that group to vote.”
Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks said the college campus-based voting centers were adopted in 2020 to make it easier for students to vote. He pointed out that there are lots of other options for other Tarrant County voters to cast their ballot.
“It’s not trying to favor one group over another, it’s trying to make it easier for people to vote, and that is the job of this Commissioners Court,” he said. “To make it easier for everyone to vote.”
The number of early voting locations are not required by state law, Ludwig said. He estimated a single voting center runs on a budget of $10,000 during early voting.
When asked how many voting centers are needed for early voting, Ludwig said as many as 60-70 locations are needed to process votes in a timely manner and avoid long wait times.
What happens next?
It was not immediately clear after the motion failed what would happen next. Ludwig said the county has to have the early voting locations posted within 60 days of the election, which would be Sept. 6. That timeline is required by the three cities and four independent school districts that are participating in the election, he said.
