MoCo Board of Elections Proposes Precinct Elimination

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The Montgomery County Board of Elections called a joint meeting with the Montgomery County Commission to discuss their plans to reduce the amount of polling precincts within the County from 7 to 3.

During this meeting, Board of Elections Chairman William Morris explained that after reviewing the statistics from the 2020 election, the Board had agreed that they could reduce the number of precincts in an effort to improve time efficiency, cut costs, and provide more controlled elections.

“The election superintendent is required to upload the county election results to the Secretary of State office by 10 p.m. on election days,” Morris told the Commissioners. “Having less precincts means there is less people to talk to from each precinct, and less people having to provide information.”

As part of this proposal, the Board of Elections would eliminate the Ailey, Alston, Kibbee, and Tarrytown precincts, leaving voters spread between Mount Vernon, Higgston, and Uvalda, which Morris said are the three largest precincts. “We looked at which areas would be easiest to consolidate, and because of the smaller number of people in the Northern side of the county, we found it was easiest to spread precincts in the South, East, and West,” he explained.

These precincts would each be equipped with 8 voting selection machines and 2 poll pads, which Morris explained was more than enough for each group. The amount of pollworkers in the county will decrease from 33 to 18 total workers, which designates 5 pollworkers and 1 poll manager to each precinct.

Voters will also no longer be required to fill out a paper copy of their voter check-in, as Morris said all the information will be completed through the poll pads. “Voting will be faster on Election Day with this. I think it is truly a good system,” he told the Commission.

The Board will host a public hearing to answer any questions or concerns from citizens at 5 p.m. on Monday, May 1, at the Montgomery County Government Annex, located at 215 South Richardson Street in Mount Vernon. The final vote on the proposal will occur at 10 a.m. on May 2.