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With Election Day less than a month away, polling locations are being finalized.
One Houston man; however, alleges discrimination behind the denial of a gun shop proposed as a spot for casting ballots, per a report from Houston FOX affiliate KRIV.
The station reported that Harris County election officials told Mike Holsey that the Collectors Firearms store on Westheimer Road and South Voss Road couldn’t be used as a polling place because his proposal violates state law.
According to the report, Holsey serves as the Harris County Republican Party chairman for Precinct 312.
He suggested Collectors Firearms because the business is housed in a large building, its parking lot can accommodate many vehicles and adheres to Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) standards.
"You can drive right up to the front door,” Holsey told KRIV. “You can walk right in. It would be a perfect location. It’s got 500 parking spaces."
Holsey added that his precinct lacks suitable locations to hold elections such as a fire station, a church or a community center, the station reported.
He insisted that the gun store is the safest place to hold an election.
"We would be separate from the gun store, and they would put up tables and barricades,” Holsey said in the report. "It’s just that people know where this location is."
He claims that some businesses in Houston’s liberal-leaning Montrose neighborhood in addition to the Harris County Jail are permitted to serve as polling places, according to KRIV.
“I’m claiming discrimination from the voting administrator that I’m conservative, I’m old and I’m white,” the precinct chair said, the station reported.
KRIV reported that Clifford Tatum, the county’s elections head, issued a statement saying his office studied the Texas Penal Code and deemed the proposal for Collectors Firearms unfeasible.
The state prohibits firearms at polling places when an election is held or while early voting is taking place.