O'Hare says every eligible voter will have "a fair, secure, and accessible way to vote"
Tim O'HareTarrant County Judge and presiding officer of the Commissioners Court
In a written statement to FOX 4 after the vote, County Judge Tim O'Hare thanked elections staff and residents who pushed for a better plan and said every eligible Tarrant County voter would have a fair, secure and accessible way to vote in November. FOX 4 also reported that he said the sites are reasonably spread across the four commissioner precincts, that the county has 54 more polling sites than Texas requires, and that some earlier locations were dropped because they were no longer in use or no longer met ADA requirements.
“I want to thank our elections staff for the work that got us here, and I want to thank the residents who showed up and pushed for a better plan. Every eligible voter in Tarrant County will have a fair, secure, and accessible way to vote this November.”
Reporting
Where this statement fits
Were Tarrant County's 2026 polling-site cuts an attempt to skew the election?
On September 1, 2026, Tarrant County commissioners voted 3–2 to approve 224 Election Day polling sites for the November election, down from 316 in the 2022 midterms. Heather Cox Richardson characterized the decision as election-rigging and cited access concerns. W. A. Wren accepted the counts but argued that her account omitted the county Republicans' savings and low-turnout rationale and countywide vote-center rules. The decision's motive and likely effects on access are disputed.
Source and context
Reporting
About this source
FOX 4 report on the Tarrant County Commissioners Court's September 1, 2026 vote to reduce polling sites. It includes a written statement from County Judge Tim O'Hare defending the adopted list and an interview with an SMU political scientist who questions the stated rationale.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Before the quotation
The Commissioners Court voted 3-2 on September 1 to reduce Election Day polling sites from 316 in 2022 to 224; O'Hare voted for the list.
After the quotation
The same FOX 4 report includes a Southern Methodist University political scientist who disputed that the reduction was free of political motivation.
How this statement is classified
The label describes this statement's response within the context above.
Why this label?
O'Hare describes the adopted plan as giving every eligible voter fair and accessible voting and credits it to staff work, which defends the decision rather than disputing a label.
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More from this case
Read the full casePritzker says Republicans are "working to rig the 2026 election"
“Republicans are also working to suppress the vote all across the country. In Tarrant County, the Republicans closed 92 in-person polling places last week, and Trump is attempting to have the Postal Service interfere with mail-in ballots across this state and every state. Republicans know that they can't win on the merits of their unpopular policies, so they're working to rig the 2026 election.”Read statement
Wren challenges Richardson's framing
“Richardson isn’t lying. Everything she wrote checks out as far as it goes.”Read statement
Nathan Johnson says polling-site cut "does not read as a budget decision"
“We have not heard a remotely convincing argument that this reduction of polling locations serves any purpose other than to make it more difficult to vote. While County officials say this saves resources, to close polling places seven weeks out from a midterm election, in the county where voter participation is surging, does not read as a budget decision.”Read statement
Cite this record
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- The Dispute Index
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- O'Hare says every eligible voter will have "a fair, secure, and accessible way to vote"
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- https://disputeindex.com/events/2150-in-a-written-statement-to-fox-4-after
Last updated marks the most recent saved version of this published statement.
The Dispute Index. "O'Hare says every eligible voter will have "a fair, secure, and accessible way to vote"". First published: 2026-09-24. Last updated: 2026-09-24. https://disputeindex.com/events/2150-in-a-written-statement-to-fox-4-after