Originally published at: A Texas County Cuts Over 100 Polling Sites as Trump Attacks Mail-In Voting Nationally
This article was first published at ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Officials in a large North Texas county decided this week to cut more than 100 Election Day polling sites and reduce the number of early voting locations, amid growing concern about GOP efforts to limit voting access ahead of next year’s midterm elections.…
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Starting to see the whole shape of the ugly animal now.
Things are going to get picante - muy picante.
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Texas leads the nation in fascism.
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Since they aren’t planning on holding elections anyway, what’s the big deal? [/s]
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Well, that’s the logic, isn’t it? Make it harder to vote, so even fewer people vote. Keep tightening it down, to where few enough people can make it to the polls that you can declare elections aren’t wanted anymore or needed.
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The stupidity of it is that their own voters won’t be able to get to the polls either.
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“I don’t believe it’s the county government’s responsibility to try to get more people out to the polls,” O’Hare said
Rather the responsibility of the ruling party is to ensure voters have no choice.
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Mind boggling that an election official says the quiet part out loud; that it’s not his responsibility to make it easy for citizens to vote. In the world’s democracies, places like Britain, Canada, Germany etc., the success of an election is at least partly measured by how a high a percentage of the registered electorate voted.
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In St Louis County we have county wide polling places. I wasn’t that impressed since my assigned polling place was less than a mile from my house. Then where I voted in my community center was shut down for restoration and construction of building that is as old as I am. They send out a list of the closest polling place near my home address. I ended up go to vote in the next community’s rec center. I actually like it better than my old one.
As for this TX county shuttering polling sites this happened in St Louis County too. It was weird at first, but people do adapt. And St Louis County made absentee voting/early voting a lot easier to do.
I believe that this may not work out like they planned. Nothing fires up a voter more than when the powers that be try to make harder.
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In Cook County, one township, Thornton, has 200,000+/- population. It has, IIRC, 202 voting sites. Every precinct has its own.
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I’m confident thay’ve considered this. As with the redistricting in their favor using highly detailed voter maps, undoubtedly the remaining polling locations favor R voters.
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Oct. 2020 BBC article.
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Everything is bigger in Texas, especially the rat-fuckers.
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I think it is the hand writing on the wall. These are the moves of people who do not think they can win forthrightly. They worked hard to suppress the vote in 2024 and some of that was directly visible. Who knows what else they have done that we haven’t seen. They cannot win without cheating.
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Though as a counterpoint, you have ham-handed El Presidente pushing out edicts from the White House demanding voter suppression, even if it hurts his “own” people. While some of it may be carefully targeted, some of the damage is going to be indiscriminate due to pressure from on high.
Tarrant County Election Administrator Clinton Ludwig said the sites meet the state’s new “bare minimum,” with “a little bit of wiggle room” in case certain planned locations fall through. He told commissioners that the initially proposed cuts aimed to save about $1 million.
Local governments do have to balance their budgets, but they like to roll “it will save money” out as the be-all and end-all for doing something. Government, first and foremost, should be about serving the people. Ideally, you do it efficiently, but scrimping to save a buck when it hurts your constituents is completely wrong-headed if you are being honest about your intentions.
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Tarrant County is kind of fucked up.
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They got to do something. Trump is a dead man walking, that is if he is still walking.
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I will crawl over broken glass, possibly permanently disfiguring myself, to vote. Fortunately I don’t have to, I live in Washington State. I just get my ballot, then take it to the library when I’m done. But I’ll do it.
Will Republican voters do the same?
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I can’t imagine what the closed-door argument is like in favor of cutting so many polling locations. Are they just against democracy in general? Do they pretend it’s a money issue? They come off as pure villains. I’m surprised the Texas courts will allow this, it’s so partisan.
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