FWISD Compromises On County Voting

Last week I posted about the Fort Worth Independent School District refusing to allow Tarrant County election officials to use 34 schools as voting sites. They said they had refused because the schools were taking the TAKS test and they didn't want to disturb the students.

At the time, I rebuked the school district. These schools are public buildings and should be available for important public functions. There is no more important public function than voting. To relocate 34 voting sites at the last minute, even if it could be done, would have caused great confusion for voters and may have even prevented some late voters from finding their new site in time to vote.

It looks like someone in the school district administration has had an attack of common sense. After elections officials asked again to use 33 of the schools, school officials have countered with an offer to allow voting at 30 of the schools.

School district administrators say they still don't want to allow voting at three low-performing schools. They want to do everything they can to see these students are given a chance to improve their test scores. At the other 30 schools, the district will assign an extra person to help keep the testing and voting separate. They are asking that the county also provide extra workers at these sites.

This puts the ball back in the county's court. I believe the school district has made an acceptable compromise offer. The county should find a new site for the three precincts in queston and honor the school district's request for extra workers at the other 30 sites.

There may be some who see this as an effort to dimish the minority turnout, since all three of the schools not being used are in minority neighborhoods. If this was a general election, I might agree.

But this is a primary election, and I believe this was caused by our state leaders blundering and scheduling two important events on the same date. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt this time.

However, there will be no excuse for anything like this happening again this November. It is incumbant on state officials to get together and make sure there are no conflicts for the general election. All the traditional voting sites must be available.

For this primary, the county and the parties must cooperate to make sure the voters in the changed precincts know where to go to vote.