Town Council Votes to Cut Polling Sites to 1

And then there was one.

For the second time this year, the Town Council has voted to eliminate a voting precinct in town, which means when the September Primary rolls around, and moving forward, there will be only one place to vote.

That voting site, at least for the interim, is James Mastricola Upper Elementary School.

Thursday night's vote effectively closed the polls at St. John Neumann Church on Route 101A. In January, after the presidential primary, the Council voted to close the polls at St. James United Methodist Church after Town Moderator Lynn Christensen brought forward concerns about safety, traffic problems and compliancy issues with New Hampshire voting laws.

On Thursday, Christensen again met with the Council, this time making the case for going to a single polling location, with a request for the Council to speak with the Merrimack School Board about possibly moving that single location to Merrimack High School.

For most elections, Christensen said the all-purpose room at JMUES is sufficient to handle voter traffic, but it would be a challenge, she said, for a couple, including the upcoming presidential election.

With 15,000-16,000 voters expected to turn out for the election this November, a polling site at the  high school would be a much more viable solution, Christensen told the board.

“I'd like you to pursue talking to the school, seeing if we can get permission from them or cooperation from them to go to the gym at the high school as your primary polling site for the town and as the back up for those days when we can't cancel school, go to the upper elementary school, but have a single polling site,” Christensen said.

The board voted to hold the elections in one location and it voted to direct Town Council Chairman Tom Mahon to be in contact with school officials to reignite a dialogue about the possibility of holding elections in the high school gym.

In December, the school board held a discussion about Christensen's request to use the gym as a single polling site and members of the board, expressed concerns about what having an election there would do to the school calendar.

School would need to be closed on election days, in order for their to be parking for voters and not knowing when the presidential primary will be held from election to election was a concern.

Christensen said it then and said it again Thursday night that typical primary turnout is low enough that the polling site for that election could easily move back to JMUES if they couldn't make it work with the calendar. She said there are other options, like building a floating holiday into the school calendar.

Teacher workshop days have already been built into the calendar on Sept. 11 (primary day) and Nov. 6 (election day) Christensen said, in the event that the board agrees to the polling site, and the moderator said she feels confident that a candid conversation with the school board will turn out favorably for holding elections at the high school.

In addition to making life easier on election day, Christensen said having one site is a big cost savings on the town's election budget.

Even with the added cost of splitting with the school district the purchase of heavy-duty floor mats to protect the gym floor on election days, Christensen said the town would still save money by moving to a single location.

“Ideally we'd have one site, it would be the high school and we'd be done with it,” Christensen said.

Mahon was directed by the board to be in touch with the school district between now and the Town Council's next meeting on July 19. State election law requires the town to publish the polling site at least 30 days ahead of an election, so the Council will need to set the address of the polling location at the July 19 meeting or hold a special meeting before Aug. 11 if it is going to change the primary polling location from JMUES to the high school.