Franklin County Bd of Elections Clarifies Consolidation Plan
The Franklin County Board of Elections is clarifying its plan to consolidate voting precincts, saying it is open to suggestions.
Last month, Elections Superintendent for Franklin County Tess Eubanks told the Board of Commission the elections board voted in March to consolidate precincts from the current 13 down to four based on the four county commission districts, as a way to save the county over $5,000 per election.
For the past month, the elections board has been soliciting input from the voters and on Thursday, Eubanks said the opinions for and against are running neck and neck.
“They think it’s a great idea to try and save the county money. That’s been the positive side of it,” Eubanks said. “The negative side is voters are worried the elderly will not be able to make it to the new poling place.”
Other concerns from municipal leaders are that people living in public housing will also not be able to get to a new poling place since many do not have cars and there is no public transportation in any of the municipalities or the county.
However, Eubanks said she would work to make sure ways were found to get everyone who wants to vote to the polls.
Eubanks said while the election board wants to consolidate precincts, the four-district plan she presented last month is not set in stone.
“That’s one of a number of plans the board looked at,” Eubanks said. “The main thing I want to get out there is that this is not a done deal. The only thing the Board of Elections voted for was to move forward with a plan for consolidation. They are open to any other ideas or suggestions the public has.”
Eubanks said there’s been a lot of misinformation circulating that the board is not willing to listen to the public before going ahead with their plan. She said that’s one reason why they plan to hold a public hearing on August 6th. She said they are open to any and all ideas from the voting public, even if means going back to the drawing board.
“This is a work in progress and we’re starting it now so we can go back to the drawing board if needed,” she said. “Mainly they’re looking for the public to say if they don’t like the current plan, what plan would they like to see. We’re open to suggestions.”
In May, Eubanks told the Board of Commissioners currently the county spends over $8,000 per election just on employee salaries.
Consolidating the voting precincts from 13 down to four she said would then cost the county just over $2,700 per election.
The public hearing on consolidating voting precincts takes place August 6th at 6p at the Elections and Registrations office in Carnesville.