The Etowah County County Commission heard concerns from Gary Walls, an Etowah county voter, who attended the commission meeting on Tuesday, September 16, to express his opinions on the relocation of polling places, which happened last month.
Walls, who voted at the New Union Fire Station, said he is not happy with the distance to the new polling place and the lines that it will cause from the consolidation.
“For people that vote on Bluff Road, from the end of Bluff Road at the Marshall County line to the Egypt Community Center is between 15 and 16 miles,” Walls said. “…You’re creating a larger line there. What I’m saying is that people, old people like myself, are not going to stand in line to vote.”
Walls said through the consolidation, the commission is attempting to delete the older voters and penalizing the areas of the county that are smaller.
“I hope y’all really go back and look at this,” Walls said. “There are over 1,400 registered voters at New Union and you’re going to throw them into Egypt… All that’s going to do is make voting that much harder.”
The polling location at Whorton Bend Fire Department was to be consolidated, but due to the growth of the community the decision to keep it as a polling station was made.
Part of the reason for the consolidation of locations is due to a shortage of poll workers, Craig Inzer, Etowah County commissioner, said. In the past, the sheriff had to work as a poll worker checking identification because of the shortage, and some polling locations shut down at 5 p.m., according to Inzer.
Voting machines from the previous locations will be moved to the new locations, and more poll workers will be at the new locations as well to combat higher voter numbers, according to Inzer.
“Instead of having one person at New Union, we’re going to have four poll workers, which we are struggling to get as it is,” Inzer said. “If it wasn’t for the high school kids that are volunteering, that the judge has allowed it to happen, we might not have it.”
A committee was formed by the commission to review the polling locations, which included three of the commissioners and Judge Scott Hassel.
There are 11 households within the New Union polling precinct, with an average of 2.3 voters per household, which will have to travel 8.3 miles further to the new polling location, according to Hassel, and six households that will have the furthest drive of 9 miles, as the crow flies.
The polling precinct currently has 1,976 registered voters, but the average turnout of voters is 35.7 percent, according to Hassel.
When planning for the consolidation, the committee took into consideration the number of voters and the mileage traveled, according to Hassel. The data showed that 60 percent of the polling locations were less than three miles from one another, He said.
“I know it’s frustrating,” Hassle said. “I know it’s a change, but I think you would agree, even on election day, the problems that you enumerated, like waiting in line, we had at New Union.”
The consolidation was not based upon people or feelings, it was based upon data, Hassle said.
The consolidation is estimated to save the county over $100,000 a year on every election, including runoffs, Inzer said.
