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."
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.