Thousands of Athens voters will likely be voting at different polling locations next March under a new precinct map the Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections is scheduled to vote on next week.
The board initially set out to look at alternate locations for Georgia Square Mall, which will be redeveloped in the coming years, and the Multimodal Transportation Center, which is actually located outside the Precinct 4A lines. Then members decided to expand the effort because populations within precincts had gotten out of whack in the decades since the last time the lines were changed, and some buildings were no longer suitable for voting. In particular, schools can be problematic, with a stream of people coming into buildings during the school day, so election officials looked at ACC-owned buildings first, then churches—if the church was willing—before considering schools. Buildings also need heavy-duty electrical wiring to handle the power needs of voting equipment, ample parking, access for disabled voters and enough space to accommodate one machine for every 250 registered voters as required by state law (about 10–15 machines on average). “It’s like we needed a magic wand,” board member Ann Till said at a June 20 public hearing.
The plan the BOE is presenting would fold the smallest precinct (6D, the Oglethorpe Avenue fire station) into 5A, Oglethorpe Avenue Elementary School. A new precinct would be created in East Athens, which has the most populous precinct—2B, Howard Stroud Elementary, with 4,559 registered voters as of November 2022. The new polling place will be located at either Heard Park or the Miriam Moore Community Center next door. The polling place for 4A would be moved to the Athens-Ben Epps Airport community room, and the mall polling station would be moved to the ACC Extension Office off Cleveland Road. Other changes include moving 1A from the Winterville Train Depot to the Winterville Community Center, moving 5D from ACC Fleet Management to the Girl Scouts of Historic Northeast Georgia, and moving 7C from the Five Points fire station to Milledge Avenue Baptist Church.
In addition, precinct lines all over the county were tweaked to keep them under 4,000 registered voters. Precincts are made up of Census blocks, and must follow geographical boundaries like roads or streams.
BOE member Willa Fambrough said the changes make precincts more equitable. “It was urgent that we do something,” she said.
Director of Elections and Voter Registration Charlotte Sosebee said she is recommending that the changes be implemented for the March presidential primaries. It will take eight weeks to update voter rolls and print cards to mail to voters informing them of their precinct and polling place, she said. Those cards would go out in February, before the start of early voting. Signs will also be posted at polling places during the November countywide special election for clerk of court, and at various locations around each precinct prior to the March vote.
The Board of Elections is scheduled to vote on the changes July 11.
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