| jhwygirl has written another incredible post on the proposed polling place consolidations in Missoula County. My colleagues at Forward Montana have done an outstanding job raising awareness on this issue -- even working with some sharp young conservatives with whom we share an interest in voting rights.
But I think jhwygirl does a nice job summarizing just why the county needs to do a more serious job of considering the concerns being raised: Having only one polling station in the Rattlesnake is nuts. Even nuttier is closing Prescott (at the bottom of the hill) and leaving the Rattlesnake School up the hill. Have everyone driving up the hill and back? From a transportation point of view it makes absolutely no sense. There's a reason we want public input on these proposals: people are smart; getting their input will strengthen the proposal.
As both jhwygirl and my colleagues have noted, very few of us have any objection to precinct consolidation. Cold Springs Elementary has been ripe for precinct consolidation for years, in my estimation. So has Hellgate Elementary. Consider that the consolidations at Cold Springs will cut the number of election judges needed at a single polling location by more than 50%.
Then consider that the courthouse polling location (which is being slated for closure in part because so many people go there thinking they can vote) and the University Center get so busy in Presidential election years that the county has slated 10 election judges to staff each location (single precincts only statutorily need 3).
Bottom-line -- this proposal needs a lot of work. Forward Montana told the county months ago that we were open to precinct consolidation (Missoula County currently has 40 more precincts than Yellowstone County, which is bigger geographically and population wise) precisely to help the county save money and reduce the number of election judges needed to run an election.
Sadly, county leadership has decided to respond to criticism by basically closing up, defending the proposal come hell or highwater, and indicating that the decision is already done. That isn't being well-received by the people I know in this county.
The good news here is also that there is probably a fairly straightforward way to proceed -- make the precinct consolidations that don't affect polling locations. Leave the polling locations for now. It is easy enough to merge them later after a more public process. The county will start reaping savings immediately and those of us concerned about negative repercussions of ill-considered moves will probably stop our gnashing of teeth. |
