The Tarrant County Libertarian Party says it will ask a court to step into how the county's mail-ballot review board is staffed, a fight that comes as the board works through a heavier load of mailed ballots than in the last midterm.
Party chair Sean Sparkman told the Fort Worth Report the party intends to file a writ of mandamus, a request for a court order directing officials to carry out a legal duty or fix what the filer calls an abuse of discretion. Republican election board members say the board followed the law, according to the Report's Friday account.
What the ballot board does
Before each election, the county appoints an early voting ballot board to process mail ballots and decide whether provisional ballots count. State law requires the same number of appointees from each party with nominees on the ballot, the Report wrote.
For the Nov. 3 election, the county's election board named 27 people in July: nine Democrats, nine Libertarians and nine Republicans. The party whose candidate for governor drew the most votes in the last governor's race presides, so the board is chaired by the top name on the Republican list.
Libertarians argue that equal appointment has not meant equal work. Over the two weeks of early voting, the chair scheduled nine Republicans, seven Democrats and two Libertarians to handle ballots, according to four Libertarians and two Democrats, among them the Democratic Party chair, who described the schedule to the Report. The chair did not answer the Report's request for comment.
Twenty more members
At a special meeting Thursday, five days before Election Day, the election board added 20 members to the ballot board: 14 Republicans, three Democrats and three Libertarians.
The vote was unanimous among the board's five members, Elections Administrator Clint Ludwig, who chairs it; Republican Party chair Tim Davis; Democratic Party chair Allison Campolo; Sheriff Bill Waybourn; and County Judge Tim O'Hare, who is on Tuesday's ballot seeking a second term.
