Southlake, Texas: Why Is a Diwali Festival Blocking Voter Access Hours Before It Even Begins? Today is the only full Saturday in Texas’s early-voting window. Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Southlake Town Hall (1400 Main Street). The city is reportedly closing streets and hundreds of parking spaces around Town Square for a Diwali festival that begins at 3 p.m. and runs until 10 p.m. Voters are already reporting blocked parking and restricted access. One resident told RAIR Foundation USA: “Voting for Tarrant County TX in Southlake Town Square…..hundreds of parking spots being blocked due to Dawali festival that doesn’t start until 3pm.” Residents say the closures are justified by fireworks that won’t happen until later tonight. Why are the city and the Southlake Foundation scheduling setup and access restrictions on the single Saturday working people have been given to vote early, overlapping the entire voting day, for an event that does not begin until mid-afternoon? Diwali itself is November 8. The festival could have been held any other day. Early voting could not. Tarrant County’s schedule is fixed: October 24 is the only Saturday with full 7-to-7 hours. Southlake Town Hall is an official early-voting site. The Southlake Foundation’s own materials list the event at Town Square from 3–10 p.m. Officials knew both calendars! Yet residents are being told the parking and street closures are necessary. No public explanation has been offered for why setup could not wait until after voting hours, why alternative parking was not secured in advance, or whether election officials were even consulted before the closures were approved. The questions are straightforward and still unanswered: Who approved the parking and street restrictions? When were they approved? How many spaces were taken out of service? Were Tarrant County election officials consulted? What contingency plan exists so voters can reach the polls without disruption? If the fireworks are the real reason, organizers and the city had every opportunity to stage the event without treating voter access as secondary. They chose not to. One resident asked the obvious question: “Why would the city allow any event during voting, the only Saturday of early voting?” Others are already calling it an avoidable obstacle, and some are asking whether the scheduling reflects coordination or simple indifference. Mayor Shawn McCaskill’s office and the Southlake Foundation should answer publicly instead of forcing voters to document the problem themselves. Voting is not a scheduling inconvenience. When an official polling location is surrounded by closed parking on the only Saturday of early voting, officials owe the public a clear explanation—not silence and blocked spaces. If you are in Southlake today, document it. Photographs, videos, and timestamps of the closures and their impact on people trying to vote will force answers. Officials who believe they handled this correctly have nothing to hide. Why was voter access not protected first?