Vote Centers or Super Precincts

 VOTE CENTERS OR SUPER PRECINCTS

(More bad ideas for Election Reform)

~ Poll Tax of the 21st Century ~

By Joyce McCloy, Founder of the North Carolina Coalition for Verified Voting. See www.ncvoter.net Download printable report  here.

Super Precincts, Vote Centers or “Mega Precincts” are often defined as a polling place at which any registered voter in the political subdivision holding the election may vote, regardless of the precinct in which the voter lives.The advantage is that there is no wrong place to vote. In some states, the Vote Centers are open multiple days or weeks prior to Election Day. 

To pay for Vote Centers, sacrifices are made:  Which precincts will be eliminated?  Who decides?   The number of voting locations and voting machines are cut by as much as 66% or more. Neighborhood election day precincts are often eliminated. Certain segments of the population have a bigger burden in trying to excercise their right to vote. Vote Centers or Super Precincts don’t serve the voter’s needs or the precise requirements for democratic elections — transparency being one of them.
Straight off, they move polling places away from the neighborhood locations where voters without the means can have easier access.

Super Precincts or Vote Centers can become a poll-tax for the elderly, disabled, poor and rural voters – because of the additional travel, time, missed work or physical stress of waiting in long lines to vote. Voters can no longer walk or travel a short distance to vote.  For disabled, the voting location is no longer in a familiar neighborhood, and may be in a busy crowded facility.  Election officials have to rely more on expensive and error prone technologies such as electronic poll books and touch-screen voting machines. When equipment crashes or fails to work, greater numbers of voters are simultaneously disenfranchised.  Denial of service attacks affect larger portions of voters. (More eggs in one basket)

In 2006 one North Carolina election official from Guilford County proposed a plan for Vote Centers that would serve 10,000 voters each and reduce voting locations and voting equipment by two thirds (2/3).  See page two for that plan. County Commissioners unanimously voted that plan down.

A report on precinct sizes put together for the North Carolina State Board of Elections presents information about the effect of size and numbers of precincts. This report was put together by Edward Packard, an elections administrator for the Secretary of State of Alabama.

Limitations of Large Voting Precincts – “Mega-Precincts”

While large voting precincts, “mega-precincts” (precincts with over 2,000 voters), may be useful under certain circumstances, they have their own limitations which may adversely affect activities on election day:  Highlights below:

• “The general consensus among election officials is that 1,500 voters is a desirable target for the base size of a voting precinct.”
• “While large voting precincts, ”mega-precincts” (precincts with over 2,000 voters), may be useful under certain circumstances, they have their own limitations which may adversely affect activities on election day.”
• “Even when centralized, individuals may have to travel farther to reach the polls, especially if the precinct is not compact. Additionally, highly urbanized areas experience problems with traffic congestion that coincides with the peak voting hours before and after traditional work hours.”
• “When they reach the polls, voters in large precincts face the prospect of long lines, particularly during the peak voting hours. In past elections, the State Board of Elections office has received many calls from individuals reporting congested polling places and excessive waiting to cast a ballot. In some cases, these potential voters indicated they did not have the chance to vote due the inconvenience, and even burden, arising from these factors.”
• “”Mega-precincts,” especially those that encompass large geographic areas, are more likely to be split among various districts for the same offices. For example, two or more state senate or state house seats may represent different portions of the same precinct. As a result, polling officials in this ”split precinct” must properly administer multiple ballot styles and ensure that individuals cast ballots only for the races in which they are qualified to vote. Historically, the use of multiple ballot styles in a split precinct has the created confusion on the part of some election officials and voters. 
• http://www.cs.duke.edu/~justin/voting/upload/Precinct_size_report.doc

Vote Centers or Super Precincts (cont’d)

From the Election Center Website, here is the plan by George Gilbert for Voting Centers:

• Reduce the number of precincts
• Voting Centers will serve up to 10,000 voters!
• Guilford will reduce number of voting machines by two thirds,  from 1,212 machines to 420 machines
• Reduce the number of voting locations by two thirds, from 159 regular precincts and 11 early voting sites to 40 Vote Centers.
• People will get to drive/walk/ride the bus farther to go to their consolidated voting center