An effort by some Republican officials to curb access to early voting on college campuses in Tarrant County failed Thursday, after Tarrant County Commissioners Court voted to keep the polling sites in place.
The push to limit the voting locations was led by Judge Tim O’Hare, a Republican and the chief elected official of the county. He said the measure was intended to save money because those poll locations had low voter turnout. Democrats on the commissioners’ court and local voting rights advocates called the effort an attempt at voter suppression targeted at people of color and younger voters who tend to be more liberal.
O’Hare has said it isn’t the county’s job to make it easier for specific groups to vote.
This is insanity. Voting sites should be under the control of the federal government and run by nonpartisan commissions. States and especially not some county courthouse should have no control over whether or not a polling site exists. Polling sites should be based on population density regardless of voter turnout and Election Day should be a national holiday where everyone has the opportunity and ability to vote locally. All of this should be written into the constitution. This is pure voter suppression and anyone attempting this should be charged.
States legislators are the ones who choose electors to send to the Congress for the official vote. Technically, they can do whatever they want and ignore the votes of the people. You would need a constitutional amendment to chang be the way voting works and have the federal government control voting and elector selection requirements.
But hark! There is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). This initiative seeks to ensure that the U.S. president is elected based on the national popular vote rather than the Electoral College system. States that join the compact agree to allocate their electors to the candidate who wins the national popular vote, but it only takes effect once enough states join to total 270 electoral votes—the number needed to win the presidency.
It doesn’t require a constitutional amendment but works within the current system. However, for it to be implemented, enough states must sign on, representing a majority of the Electoral College votes.
“O’Hare has said it isn’t the county’s job to make it easier for specific groups to vote.”
Yes👏 It👏 Fucking👏 Is👏
Voting sites really don’t cost that much money. They probably spent more money putting up this measure than it would cost to just run the damn thing.
When I work elections, the county pays me roughly 180 bucks for the whole day 6am - 8pm (I dont do it for the money, obviously). The smallest one i worked had around 3-5 people, so less than 1k in labor overall.
All of the devices and materials aside from the ballots get re-used for each election, unless there are equipment changes. The voting locations themselves are often donated spaces, like churches and schools. There are also election technicians, but they’re serving multiple precincts and dropping one location won’t make much of a difference. Everyone else involved is usually already a salaried government worker.
All this to say, closing a precinct to “save money” is a pathetic excuse. Everyone has the right to vote. It should be the first thing we make sure we budget for.
