Dem
47
GOP
53
We have reiterated this observation many times, including in the last week, but it's hard-to-impossible to steal elections once the ballots are cast. On the other hand, it's certainly possible to steal them before and maybe during the casting of ballots. The leaders of red states are aware of this, and so are hard at work doing what they can do to hold onto power, by hook or by crook.
Yesterday's news on this front comes out of... Texas. Surprise! It might well be the most undemocratic state in the nation (though Florida is in the running, and maybe Ohio, too). Donald Trump has been railing about mail-in voting for the last couple of weeks, ever since Vladimir Putin manipulated him into doing so. In response to Trump's whining, the Tarrant County Commissioners Court (Texas' version of a Board of Commissioners) voted 3-2 to reduce the number of polling places in the County, from 331 down to 216. They also voted to reduce the number of days for early voting.
The careful reader might notice that, even if one accepts Trump's claims about mail-in voting, that actually has nothing to do with how many polling places there are. Nonetheless, Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare, who is chair of the commission, and who joined with his two fellow Republicans on the commission to implement the changes, said this will make voting more "secure" and more "efficient." The latter of the two claims is particularly difficult to say with a straight face. Last we checked, longer waiting times and longer distances to travel are not more "efficient."
Tarrant County is the third-largest in Texas. And while it is light-red, its biggest city, Fort Worth, is blue. In addition, two of the districts that were aggressively redrawn in the new Texas map, TX-32 and TX-33, are located at least partly in Tarrant County. Depending on which 100 or so polling places get shut down, it would be very easy to suppress Democratic turnout, and thus to give a little assistance to the effort to steal a few seats in the U.S. House.
We will see if other counties take "inspiration" from Tarrant. Most of the other redrawn districts span several counties, so it could be a bit harder to coordinate these sorts of shenanigans. (Z)