After holding a special meeting to reconsider allowing a leftist organization to use government buildings for registering voters, the Tarrant County Commissioners Court has blocked the group from county facilities.
Last week, commissioners were set to vote on whether a leftist organization, Battleground Texas Engagement Fund, would be allowed to use county facilities to register people to vote.
Battleground Texas has a stated position of wanting to turn Texas blue, saying on its website that Republicans are failing Texas communities.
Rather than holding a vote on the group’s original request, Democrat Commissioner Alisa Simmons proposed an amendment to the Tarrant County Facilities Use Policy that would permit county-certified volunteer deputy registrars to utilize the facilities as long as they conduct business during normal public access hours.
The amendment passed in a 3-1 vote, with Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare as the only dissenting vote. Commissioner Gary Fickes was the sole Republican to vote for the amendment, while the third Republican on the Commissioners Court, Manny Ramirez, was absent during the vote.
After the vote, Fickes approached O’Hare saying he did not mean to vote for the amendment and asked how he could change his vote. O’Hare then called a special meeting for today to reconsider the amendment.
During the special meeting, the amendment failed in a 3-2 vote, with Democrat Commissioners Simmons and Roy Charles Brooks voting in favor and the three Republicans opposed.
Commissioners then voted to deny the original request from Battleground Texas and the Jolt Initiative in a 4-1 vote, with only Commissioner Simmons voting to allow the organizations inside the buildings.
If the amendment and request had been approved, Battleground Texas Engagement Fund would have been allowed to set up in the main lobby of Tarrant County’s Northeast courthouse and the five subcourthouses.
O’Hare and Ramirez previously told Texas Scorecard they do not approve of partisan political organizations operating inside county buildings.
