This is pretty amazing
All counties could centralize their voting operations into fewer locations to save money and reduce the number of volunteers needed on Election Day under a bill the House passed and sent to Gov. Mitch Daniels on Monday.
Senate Bill 32 requires a unanimous vote by the three-member Board of Elections to use so-called vote centers, rather than requiring Hoosiers to cast ballots at precinct level locations. It passed 68-28.
[. . .]
The House fast-tracked Senate Bill 32, making it the first bill to go to Daniels' desk for consideration during this session, and some Democrats complained Monday about the hurry.
The legislature was just poking along on this the way it does most things. Well, we'll have a pilot program in a few counties and see how that goes. Then maybe we'll have a committee hearing in a year or two. Oh, and we could commission a survey.
Suddenly, wham, bam, the thing is rushed through and becomes the first bill to reach the governor's desk. Counties that choose to can even set the voting centers up for this year's primary. Not sure how they'd work out in a county as big and spread out as Allen -- i.e., how many centers would we need to not make voting a hardship for people used to voting near home, and would we really save that much money?
Comments
Tippecanoe County, Wayne County, and Cass County have had vote centers for a couple of years under a pilot program for a few years. I think it has saved some money. Most folks in Tippecanoe County seem to like the system pretty well. I know I do. For us, though, the main financial concern was that if this bill had not passed, we would've had to spend a bunch of money to go back to the old system since the pilot program was set to expire. (They tried to deal with the expiration last year, but the bill got entwined with some more controversial election law stuff and died. Part of the reason for moving this one fast was to keep the bill from getting bogged down with other stuff.)
The problem in Allen County is parking!
There are about 225,000 registered voters in Allen County. If we have 40 votes centers, AND if they recieve equal amounts of voters, we need about 120 parking spots per location. At minimum!
(all numbers are rounded)
225,000 / 40 = 5625 voters per location
5625 / 12(hours polls are open)= 469 voters per location per hour.
Allowing 15 minutes to park, enter the building and vote, you need 118 parking spots every 15 minutes.
Now lets assume only 1/2 of those folks vote- 112,000
112,000 / 40 = 2800 voters per location
2800 / 12 (hours polls are open)= 233
Allowing 15 minutes to park, enter the building and vote, you need 58 parking spots every 15 minutes.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that certain vote centers would certainly see more traffic than others.
It will be hard to find voting locations, especially in southeast Fort Wayne, that meet ADA requirements and have ample parking.
Oh, just to be clear, we had about 150,000 voters in the last Presidential election in Allen County.
How many precincts or locations does Allen County currently have or use?
Tim- it varies based on the election cycle. For this years primary there are 109 locations (not all in Fort Wayne- because there are city elections in Woodburn and New Haven too- which I think are a total of 3 locations!)
Many of these locations have more than 1 precinct voting at them.
The rules used to say that the voting location had to be within the boundaries of the precinct. But that rule was overlooked (I do not think the law changed) because of an inability to find buildings to use. Those buildings have to meet ADA requirements.
In East Central downtown there is a high-rise complex that use to have a voting location in it. The owner will not upgrade to ADA standards. So now those voters, most of whom do not have transportation, have been voting at the Innovation Center-3.5 miles away.
Less than ideal, but the best the election board can do.