Texas Is #1 In Closed Voting Sites As Voter Numbers Grow

Texas is one of the fastest growing states in population, and with each election the number of registered voters also grows (see chart above with numbers from the Texas Secretary of State site). One might assume, given that information, that the number of voting sites would also grow -- but just the opposite is happening. Texas has closed more voting sites than any other state in the nation -- far more.

Why has this happened? Because the Republicans (who control the state government) can see the demographic shift that's happening. The state already has a minorities outnumbering whites in its school system, and a few years down the road the same will be true of registered voters in the state. That doesn't bode well for the GOP with its anti-minority policies.

The Republicans could have adopted more inclusive policies, but the base wouldn't allow that, so they have chosen a different path. They chose to make it harder to vote. They have passed a Voter ID law, and that's not all -- they have also closed about 750 voting sites, and most of those closed sites have been in areas where minorities live.

Following is part of an article by Andrea Valdez in the Texas Observer (and I urge reading the whole article):

If you’ve been on the voting rights tour bus in Texas, what a ride it’s been—especially since 2013.

Prior to then, the state was beholden to the Voting Rights Act of 1965—a historic law that prohibited racial discrimination—and a particular provision therein. Under Section 5 of the VRA, certain states and local governments needed federal preclearance before changing any voting laws. The feds ran jurisdictions through a formula set out under Section 4(b) of the VRA that looked at their histories of voter discrimination laws or practices. Texas, with its well-documented past of voter suppression tactics, required preclearance.

Then came the 2013 U.S. Supreme Court case Shelby v. Holder. In a 5-4 decision, the justices struck down Section 4(b) as unconstitutional, effectively rendering Section 5’s preclearance provision moot. With the federal cat away, Texas began to play. Section 4(b)’s body was barely lukewarm when then-Attorney General Greg Abbott announced a new, stringent voter ID law would take effect. The state later stymied efforts to make voter registration easier. Just this past session, the Lege tried to pass a bill that would put polling places in areas with higher numbers of registered voters, a rule that would favor white neighborhoods. (One provision even made it a felony if a person voted when they’re ineligible, even if was inadvertent, a specific proposal that seemed aimed at cases like Crystal Mason’s.) An advocate once described Texas’ voting policies as “a panoply of voter suppression.”

And now, the hits keep coming. A new report out from the Leadership Conference Education Fund found that Texas is leading the nation in polling place closures, another practice that voting rights advocates fear can lead to disenfranchisement.

The report, titled “Democracy Diverted: Polling Place Closures and the Right to Vote,” looked at 757 of the 861 counties and county-level equivalents across the nation that were previously covered by Section 5, and found that 750 polling places in Texas have been shuttered since Shelby. That constitutes almost half of all polling places in the U.S. closed since 2013. Fourteen Texas counties closed at least 50 percent of their polling places after Shelby, and 590 have been shuttered since the 2014 midterm election.

Maricopa County in Arizona had the most polling place closures, but that was followed by six counties in Texas: Dallas lost 74 places; Travis lost 67; Harris shuttered 52; Brazoria closed 37; and Nueces closed 37. . . .

“Before we lost Section 5, jurisdictions were required to provide notice and transparency” around polling place closures, said Leigh Chapman, director of the voting rights program at the Leadership Conference Education Fund. With no more federal oversight, it’s incumbent on voters and advocates to analyze data and determine if there’s an adverse racial impact to a community where a polling place closed. . . .

This comes into focus when looking at the demographics of some of the counties that saw the most closures. Brazoria County, which lost 59 percent of its polling locations since Shelby, is 30 percent Latino and 13 percent African American. The number of polling places in Nueces County, home to Corpus Christi and 63 percent Latinx, dropped by nearly a third. In Jefferson County, where Beaumont is located, about 34 percent of its 250,000 residents are African American and 20 percent are Latino; polling places there dropped from 57 in 2012 to 39 in 2018. . . .

Ultimately, as the report’s authors write, “closing polling places has a cascading effect, leading to long lines at other polling places, transportation hurdles, denial of language assistance and other forms of in-person help, and mass confusion about where eligible voters may cast their ballot. For many people, and particularly for voters of color, older voters, rural voters, and voters with disabilities, these burdens make it harder—and sometimes impossible—to vote.”