Congressman, others urge feds to investigate Tarrant County judge over voting rights

Elected officials who represent Tarrant County’s minority communities have asked the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to investigate County Judge Tim O’Hare and other county officials over concerns that their actions will diminish voting rights.

The letter, signed by Democratic U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey of Fort Worth and six other Democrats, cited the recent resignation of Elections Administrator Heider Garcia and the creation of an election integrity task force.

Veasey signed the letter with Tarrant County commissioners Alisa Simmons and Roy Brooks and state Reps. Nicole Collier, Ramon Romero, Chris Turner and Salman Bhojani.

They ask that the Justice Department review the actions and give them a written response about how the Civil Rights Division can end a pattern of “voter intimidation and harassment” in Tarrant County.

“As elected officials representing districts that are predominantly communities of color in Tarrant County, we are deeply concerned that recent actions by Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare and other county officials will further diminish the voting rights of those we represent and undermine their ability to freely and effectively participate in elections,” the letter states.

The rhetoric around voter fraud is eerily similar to the rhetoric used in the 1880s to justify laws meant to disenfranchise people of color, Veasey said in a phone call Tuesday afternoon.

He pointed to persistent rumors of Black voters engaging in so-called “voter fraud” at the Charles F. Griffin Subcourthouse on Miller Avenue in East Fort Worth. He said this is an old pattern of thought that seeks to demonize voters of color.

In Parker County, where a majority of voters typically support the Republican Party, it would be crazy to claim voter fraud because Democrats didn’t get more votes, Veasey said.

“Why is it acceptable to make those same outlandish claims about Black and Brown people in southeast Fort Worth?” Veasey said.

Elections are polarizing and political, but administering elections shouldn’t be, said Republican Tarrant County Commissioner Manny Ramirez, in a text message.

He called the letter a partisan swipe, and said Tarrant County needs to focus on basic services rather than what he called, “D.C. style politics.”

Neither O’Hare nor District Attorney Phil Sorrells responded to requests for comment Monday.

But on radio talk show The Mark Davis Show on Dallas-based 660 AM The Answer early Tuesday, O’Hare responded to the letter.

As a lawyer, O’Hare told Davis he wanted to go line by line through the letter. He said he had not diminished voting rights, that there was no pattern of voter intimidation or harassment in Tarrant County and that there was transparency in creating the election integrity task force through a press conference, which was held the day after the task force was announced.

“At the end of the day, this is what Democrats do,” O’Hare said in regard to Democrats trying to get the federal government involved. He continued, “They literally can’t point to a single thing that we’ve ever done to suppress the vote in Tarrant County.”

O’Hare told Davis that when something is “so dumb it isn’t worthy of a response,” not responding is the route he takes. He said Tarrant County will have its election integrity task force, hire a new elections administrator, do everything it can to ensure election confidence and not suppress voters.

“Who is exactly is being suppressed?” O’Hare asked. “The people that want to cheat?”

Davis said O’Hare might need to “ramp something up” with Veasey wanting the Justice Department to think O’Hare is a racist.

O’Hare called it “the old play.”

Tarrant County Democratic Party chair Allison Campolo thanked the lawmakers for sending the letter. She said incidents of voter intimidation have gone up since the state Legislature passed new voting rules in 2021 that prohibited 24-hour voting, put restrictions on vote-by-mail, and increased protections for partisan poll watchers.

“Federal oversight to help voters feel safe in exercising their rights would be a big step forward,” she said in a text.

In his resignation letter, dated April 16, Garcia cited a meeting with O’Hare and differing ideas for running transparent elections as the reason for his departure.

In a section of the letter addressed to O’Hare, Garcia wrote that his “formula to ‘administer a quality transparent election’ stands on respect and zero politics” and that compromising on those values wasn’t an option for him.

“You made it clear in our last meeting that your formula is different, thus, my decision to leave,” Garcia wrote. “I wish you the best; Tarrant County deserves that you find success.”

At a True Texas Project meeting April 10, O’Hare told the crowd that he planned to have a “closed door executive session discussion” about the election administrator’s performance after May 6 municipal elections. The True Texas Project was the NE Tarrant Tea Party before it rebranded in 2019.

“This resignation is deeply troubling to us given the work Mr. Garcia has undertaken during his tenure to ensure elections are fair to all voters, including racial and ethnic minority voters, in Tarrant County,” the letter states. “Since 2020, Mr. Garcia has faced harassment and even death threats from groups that have denied recent election results, including ‘Citizens for Election Integrity’ and the ‘True Texas Project,’ which has been named as an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. These actions are intended to intimidate Mr. Garcia and send a message to minority voters that if they participate in Tarrant County elections, they will face investigation and prosecution.”

In February, Republicans O’Hare, district attorney Phil Sorrells and Sheriff Bill Waybourn announced they had created an election fraud task force. During their campaigns, Sorrells had promised to create a unit and O’Hare pushed the idea of an elections officer position that would report to him, Wayborn and another commissioner.

They created the task force without Garcia, without Democrats and without notifying the Commissioners Court.

Simmons, a Democrat who represents Arlington and Mansfield, said at the time that the task force was nothing more than an attempt to appease “ultra-partisan election deniers within their party.”

Tarrant County is a majority minority county, with 43.7% of its 2.15 million residents white, 30.2% Hispanic and 18.5% Black, according to the Census Bureau.

Tarrant County Democrats in Austin raised concerns about the circumstances around Garcia’s resignation. Collier, a Fort Worth Democrat, said Garcia executed his election duties in a even keel and transparent manner. For him to leave, something alarming must have been going on, she said.

Turner, a Grand Prairie Democrat, too said Garcia is well regarded.

“I think has been credited by Republicans, Democrats and really everybody for the fair and open manner in which he has overseen the conduct of elections in Tarrant County for the last several election cycles,” Turner said.

Turner also expressed concern that the county’s election task force was adopted with little transparency.

“I think that taken together, there’s reason to be concerned about how elections will be conducted going forward in Tarrant County, and I think it’s appropriate that the Department of Justice use its lawful authority to look into the matter,” Turner said.

Romero, a Fort Worth Democrat, referenced Garcia’s written remarks about the election administrator and O’Hare having a different “formula” for administering a quality, transparent election. If an investigation is conducted, it could include “what else was said and determine how the judge is putting politics” into the administration of elections.

“I think the people of Tarrant County deserve to know, and we should move from there,” Romero said.

Bhojani, a Euless Democrat, called free and fair elections the foundation of our democracy in a written statement.

“Despite disproven claims from politicians using fear and conspiracy to further divide Texans, we know that elections in Tarrant County and across the United States are safe, transparent, and trustworthy,” the statement reads. “It’s disappointing to hear that county officials continue to intentionally sow doubt in our election process. I believe there is nothing more un-American and un-democratic than attempting to undermine and suppress voter participation. I look forward to swift attention to this matter by the Attorney General and hope that we can work together to protect the rights of our constituents.”