Less than a year after approving revised precinct lines that sent more than half of Athens voters to new polling places starting in March, the Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections is considering more changes that would affect voters in the Timothy Road area.
Director of Elections and Voter Registration Charlotte Sosebee told the board at its Tuesday, July 9 meeting that the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship has withdrawn as the polling place for precinct 7A. She said the church declined to serve as a polling site going forward because its insurance premiums would go up.
Elections and Geographic Information Systems staff could not find another appropriate building within the precinct. The Epps Bridge Road retirement community TerraBella lacked parking, Sosebee said. Timothy Road Baptist Church was another potential option, but Election Day could at times conflict with the church’s monthly food bank distribution. In addition, some officials feared that choosing another church, rather than a public building, would lead to the same insurance issues. Legally, the county government can only provide reimbursement for utilities and custodial services, not insurance costs.
Another possibility was dividing voters in precinct 7A between precincts 7B (the ACC Library) and 6C (Timothy Road Elementary School). The board put off a decision July 9 until a called meeting Monday, July 15 to gather legal advice.
At the called meeting, the board voted to start the lengthy process of moving the 7A polling location to Timothy Road Baptist by placing a legal ad later this week, but also to make a last-ditch effort to convince leaders at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship to change their minds.
The board also briefly discussed a proposal from member Adam Shirley to deal with voter challenges. Shirley said he heard of a way “to protect staff from frivolous voter challenges” by requiring those bringing time-consuming challenges against voters’ eligibility to pay associated costs, much like an open records request. Shirley wanted to send the idea to the county attorney’s office for vetting. Voting rights advocates fear that a new Georgia law will lead to a flood of bulk challenges this fall.
Several local Republicans who caught wind of the discussion complained about the timing of the Monday afternoon meeting and fretted that non-citizens will be allowed to vote in November.
“All available evidence shows that noncitizen voting in federal elections is incredibly rare,” according to the Associated Press. For example, a 2022 audit in Georgia found that 1,634 noncitizens had tried to register to vote, but their applications were all caught.
The board tabled Shirley’s proposal until its Aug. 13 meeting.
At the earlier July 9 meeting, the board also tabled a recommendation to remove the Winterville Cultural Center as an advance voting site.
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