Tarrant County Libertarians sue over midterm ballot board scheduling

The Tarrant County Libertarian Party is pursuing legal action against the county’s Republican-controlled election board, alleging that Libertarians have been inadequately represented on the ballot board verifying mail-in ballots for the November 3 midterm elections. Party chair Sean Sparkman said the group plans to file a writ of mandamus to force officials to perform their duties or correct an abuse of discretion.

Under state election code, each political party with candidates on the ballot must have an equal number of members appointed to the county’s early voting ballot board. While the election board initially appointed nine members from each of the three parties in July, Libertarians allege that during the two-week early voting period, only two Libertarians were scheduled to process ballots compared to nine Republicans and seven Democrats.

In response to concerns about timely ballot processing, the election board held a special meeting on Thursday to appoint 20 additional members, including three Libertarians, three Democrats, and 14 Republicans. County elections administrator Clint Ludwig stated the board was legally allowed to appoint these members on an as-needed basis, noting that the numbers in the ballot board room do not have to be equal at any given time.

Read the full story at fortworthreport.org.