Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Bo French is disappointed in Tarrant County Commissioners Manny Ramirez and Gary Fickes for voting with Democrats.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the commissioners court voted 4-1 on Thursday to allow early voting sites on college campuses, with Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare being the only Republican to vote against.
Ramirez, a Republican, made the motion to vote on the 51-site list, which included college campuses. Democratic Commissioner Alisa Simmons seconded the motion, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“Today, I went to the commissioners court. We have a difficult time here in Tarrant County getting Republicans to do Republican things, which is really frustrating as the Republican County chair. But it’s going to take activism from everyone to hold these people accountable and make sure they know when we elect them we want them to represent the Republican Party and our values and our platform,” French said at a Tarrant County Republican Party Executive Committee meeting on Thursday.
“We have 50 polling locations in early voting. My belief is that polling locations should be the most widely accessible to the widest number of people. But our election administrator determined that we needed to have eight polling locations on college campuses, where most of you can’t even get to to vote,” French said.
French said that he spoke at the commissioner’s court meeting. He said that Democrats pushed for the polling sites on college campuses to give themselves an advantage since students purportedly lean Democrat.
“It’s disappointing that we have Republicans not do what they were supposed to do today, but it going to take all of us to let our voices be heard and make sure our Republicans do what we want them to do,” French said.
French, near the end of the meeting, criticized the Republican commissioners once again.
“We had some Republicans vote with the radical Democrats to the applause of the radical Democrats who were thanking them personally. It’s disappointing,” French said.