Overview
- A Tarrant County judge denied a temporary injunction on Tuesday, Oct. 13, so the 92 polling sites closed by the county will not be restored before early voting begins.
- The Commissioners Court approved the cuts in a 3-2 September vote, reducing the county’s Election Day network from 316 sites in 2022 to 224 sites for the 2026 midterms.
- Plaintiffs — a group of four women of color — sued, saying the closures disproportionately affect Black and Hispanic neighborhoods and that many eliminated sites served tens of thousands of voters in 2022.
- County officials and the elections administrator defended the plan by citing 2022 turnout data, overlapping locations, building operability, ADA compliance and about $1 million in projected savings, and the administrator testified he did not solicit input from minority communities.
- The lawsuit will move into discovery toward a full trial while the smaller polling map stands, a timeline that makes any court-ordered changes unlikely before the November election and could mean longer travel or wait times for voters in affected neighborhoods.