More Discussions On Redrawing Voting Precincts Tonight

Franklin County’s Board of Commissioners will get an update tonight from the County’s Board of Elections on their plan to consolidate 13 voting precincts down to something more cost effective and manageable.

The Board of Elections has been working since early this year to come up with a plan, but has met so far with some resistance from the voting public.

Their initial plan was to pare the precincts down to four, based on the four county commission districts.

However, many complained at public hearing earlier this month, that would force voters in the more rural parts of Franklin County to travel, in some cases, up to 18 miles to the nearest polling place.

Last week, the board of elections met for  a special called session and agreed on a new, seven-precinct plan.

Under this latest plan, the board would keep the five municipal precincts and add two more in the most rural parts of the county.

Elections Board member Sherry MacDonald said a seven-precinct plan would also work as far as evening out the voter mix.

MacDonald said, “I think we should keep all of our cities open.  But if we keep all of the cities open it’s going to be a problem for everybody in the outlying areas like Red Hill, and Stranges, and Dooleys, and Welborn, and Gunnells, all that area out there. So if we were to consolidate some of the outer areas so they had a polling place in those areas as well. I was looking at the numbers, and this pretty much works out to a similar amount of people in each precinct if we went down to seven.”

In other business tonight, the Board of Commissioners will also get a report on the updating of the Employee Handbook.

And they will also discuss setting aside funding for county animal control.

Tonight’s work session takes place at 6p at Franklin County Justice Center in Carnesville.