Countywide polling places back for consideration in Collin County

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

The Collin County Commissioners are scheduled to discuss new legislation allowing for the creation of "super polling" places. These new countywide, consolidated polls would end the election day restriction on voting only in the voters' precinct of residence. Instead the new "super polls" would be similar to the early voting locations, where any voter in the county could vote in any polling place.

Last week, the Texas Legislature passed a law allowing up to five counties to institute a plan to consolidate voting places, and create these super polling locations.

The last two legislatures had approved limited temporary permitting a few counties to take part in pilot programs that consolidated the election day polling locations.

With the passage of the new provision, three counties with a population of over 100,000 and two with less than 100,000 may choose to do away with up to 35% of the traditional precinct election day poll locations and replace them with a smaller number of countywide consolidated polling places.

Countywide polling places have the potential to make it easier for many citizens to vote and to save money.

However, they can, if improperly planned, create logjams, long lines and have the effect of depressing voter turnout.

That is what almost happened in Collin County in 2006.

In 2006, Collin County Elections floated a proposal (PDF) to take part in the pilot program by reducing the number of election day polling places for the November general election from 135 to 30. After both the Republican and Democratic Parties objected, the plan was scrapped.

Larimer County in Colorado is frequently cited as an example of how well countywide polling places can work to both save money and increase voter participation in elections. Other experiments in setting up countywide super polling places have been lees successful.

Long lines have caused voter suppression at consolidated polling centers in Denver and other cities. Several research papers document lower voter turnout, especially among young and minority voters in consolidated precincts.

Larimer County has successfully reduced its number of election day polling places from 143 to 22, without suppressing voter turnout.

It accomplished this by careful planning and:

* Voter education - several mailings to each registered voter listing the location of new polling locations.

* Dedicated communications using T-1 network connections directly from each polling place to the county elections office.

* Choosing polling locations that had an abundance of parking, frequently using large churches, whose parking lots are not in use on a Tuesday election day.

Collin County's 2006 plan, however:

* Planned no mailings to voters

* Had no dedicated communication, instead relying on existing and in some places dial-up connections.

* Planned to use schools and government building that had little available parking.

Making matters worse, the county's 2006 plan had far too few locations, and too many were rural resulting in, for example, only one polling place for all of Frisco.

Elections are expensive. Efforts to cut election budgets can make consolidating voting precincts seem very attractive. However, the evidence suggests that before savings can be realized, investments must be made in voter notification, communications infrastructure, and polling place locations.

If the commissioners court does want to entertain the idea of reducing the number of polls by creating countywide super polls it, will need to create a bi-partisan committee to study all the implications and propose a budget and plan. Attempting to impose a quick-fix scheme, such as was done in 2006, will create controversy and likely result in a plan doomed to failure.

In 2006, the Collin County GOP Chair Kathy Ward joined with the Democrats in requesting that the plan be scrapped. I hope that Commissioner Ward remembers what almost happened then. And I hope the commissioners court will be open minded in soliciting input from all communities and interested parties before a proposal is put into action.