Tarrant GOP wants to eliminate countywide voting, have paper ballots. Will it get anywhere?

Tarrant GOP’s Executive Committee passed a resolution Thursday evening asking local party leaders and Tarrant County commissioners to authorize local and statewide voting systems that would allow paper ballots and end the countywide voting system.

The resolution asks for hand-marked, sequentially numbered paper ballots printed on counterfeit resistant paper, paper poll books in addition to online poll books to verify signatures, and to switch to precinct-level voting instead of the countywide voting system in place.

Heider Garcia, the outgoing Tarrant County elections administrator, said Friday the commissioners court is the ultimate decision-maker when it comes to Tarrant GOP’s resolution, which he referred to as “symbolic.”

“I mean, we’ve heard recently that members of the court wear the Tarrant County jersey and not the party jersey, so it shouldn’t really be in any way affecting any decision theoretically,” Garcia said.

Countywide voting is available in 90 counties in Texas, including Tarrant, which adopted the system in 2019, when it purchased 3,000 Hart Verity voting machines and 400 ballot scanners.

“We know no system is perfect or impervious to the corruption, but we believe this would be a significant step toward making Tarrant County elections more secure, restore the voters’ confidence in Tarrant County election process,” the woman who read the resolution into the record said.

The resolution was met with disagreement from numerous members of the party Thursday evening.

One man said it has “major flaws” and that he was “totally opposed” to it.

“It’s a mess,” the man said. “Whoever wrote this, it’s a disaster and it would be embarrassing to submit this to the county commissioners.”

Another woman said she would love paper ballots, but unless the county made a move toward precinct voting, paper poll books would make it hard to verify where people checked in. One man said the whole resolution should be turned down.

Others in the room spoke of their support for the resolution. And when it passed, the room at North Richland Hills’ Cross Church erupted into cheers.

“This our sovereignty, you guys,” one woman said. “This is our sovereignty.”

The vote from Tarrant GOP Executive Committee members comes as Texas lawmakers discuss eliminating countywide voting through Senate Bill 990. Voters will have to cast their ballots at an assigned precinct if the bill passes.

The bill has passed the Senate but is waiting to be heard by the House Committee on Elections.

Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said he hasn’t seen another county GOP officials saying they should move back to a precinct-level model. He thinks the local party is ahead of other county parties in calling for the elimination.

A switch in the way any county runs elections would mean more work in the long run, Rottinghaus said — changes in the way voting is done also tends to disrupt voting patterns and thus reduce voter turnout.

“It just shows you kind of the arc of how, like, these issues become prominent for some hardcore Republican voters,” Rottinghaus said.

Tarrant County Democratic Party chair Allison Campolo wrote in a text that the GOP’s resolution is the result of “hyperpartisan fear mongering brought on by extremist Republicans” who want to disenfranchise voters and make it harder to vote.

“Paper ballots and precinct-only voting do not make the voting process safer and would significantly enhance the time it takes to count ballots, in addition to reducing the number of people who can vote and the clarity of their choices once they do vote,” she wrote.

Garcia said Tarrant County already has a paper ballot system, which the county switched to after 2019. He does not believe a hand-marked ballot system would change anything about voting in Tarrant County — you still have to run every ballot through the same system, whether it is hand-marked or not.

What it might change, though, is the variations in vote recounts. The hand-marked ballots always have variation, Garcia said — the current system provides a stronger guarantee of the integrity of the recount and results.

“You’re not doing anything by changing the type of ballot if you’re going to put it on the same machine,” Garcia said. “So it’s absurd.”

A move toward precinct voting is something Garcia believes could have adverse effects, like sparking confusion among voters who may go to the wrong precinct. It could also lead to longer lines, Garcia said.

Garcia said having the option to vote anywhere isn’t hurting anyone. It also isn’t benefiting any one party over the over, he said.

“In my mind, I don’t understand at all,” Garcia said. “I think this has just been politicizing an argument. I think some people are so heavily invested into this supposed to be problem of election integrity that they just don’t know how to back out of it and say ‘OK, well maybe we don’t need to do all this stuff.’”

Representatives with the Texas Secretary of State’s office and Tarrant GOP chair Rick Barnes could not immediately be reached for comment Friday morning.

County judge Tim O’Hare was not immediately available for comment Friday morning.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.