Planning continues, but officials reluctant to close voting precincts

Jul. 28—MOULTRIE, Ga. — A comment in September 2019 started Colquitt County officials talking about consolidating voting precincts. More recent discussions have focused on much smaller changes to where local residents will vote.

Colquitt County Probate Judge Wes Lewis — whose duties include supervision of the county's elections — said earlier this month that some changes might be announced late this fall, but actual consolidation probably won't happen until after the 2022 elections, if at all.

A working group including Lewis, county commissioners Barbara Jelks and Paul Nagy, and other county staff have been talking informally about changes to the county's precincts since Jelks brought it up at a commission work session almost two years ago. Their ideas have centered on two plans, which Lewis discussed with commissioners June 22.

Plan A consolidates the county's 19 precincts into 11, and three of the remaining precincts would vote in a different location than they do now.

Plan B is much less aggressive. It allows that one or two precincts might be consolidated with others, but mostly it focuses on moving some voting sites within the precincts.

Lewis said the goal was to have a single plan that could be implemented at one time rather than piece-meal.

What are the problems?

The biggest focus is the condition of some buildings where voters cast ballots, Lewis said in an interview July 8.

Of the 19 current polling sites, seven are maintained by the county, two are churches and the rest are maintained by other government entities (volunteer fire departments, municipalities, the Moultrie-Colquitt County Parks and Recreation Authority, and the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council). Buildings maintained by other governments can be made available for voting at no cost to the county, and buildings maintained by private groups, like churches, are rented for $250 per day.

For the buildings it maintains, the county is responsible for landscaping and repairs to the building itself. None of those buildings are new, and some are showing their age. Concerns include deterioration of the building, potential safety issues and election security.

Some of the polling sites don't have running water for bathrooms, Lewis said. Portable outhouses have to be brought in for poll workers and voters on Election Day.

Meanwhile, those buildings have no other use, County Administrator Chas Cannon said.

"Move out of the county courthouses that are used once every four years to someplace that's used every day," suggested Cannon, who serves on the working group discussing the changes.

Some of the polling sites — both county-maintained and otherwise — are fairly small, Lewis said. The new voting system that went into operation in 2020 includes a ballot scanner that the previous system didn't. The additional equipment and an increase in voters are making some polling places uncomfortably tight, he said.

The number of required poll workers is another potential issue, but Lewis said he's had no trouble staffing Colquitt County's precincts.

Law requires a minimum of three poll workers at each voting site, Lewis said, but larger precincts need more. The county's most populous precincts, Shaw and Moultrie, usually have 8-10 workers on an election day.

When COVID hit, many elections superintendents across the state had trouble filling the needed positions. Lewis said he didn't have that problem. He's "been blessed" with poll workers who've been involved with the process for many years — some even before he took office in 2005, he said.

What do other counties do?

Nineteen precincts in one county seemed rather high to some members of the County Commission. The Observer reviewed similarly sized counties and found significant variation that didn't necessarily track with population or area.

Colquitt County is the 43rd most populous county in Georgia with 45,486 people. Among counties no. 40-46 — with populations from 57,202 to 44,626 — the number of precincts vary from seven in Habersham County to 20 in Thomas County.

Colquitt County is the 16th largest county by area at 544.15 square miles. No. 17 is Fulton County, the most populous county in the state, which has 384 precincts. Excluding Fulton, the counties with areas between 575 and 512 square miles have from five to 20 precincts.

What do election numbers show?

Early voting has become more popular each election cycle since it began. In the November general elections in both 2016 and 2020, about half of voters cast ballots during the early voting period at the Courthouse Annex. In 2016, roughly half of voters cast ballots on Election Day at their voting sites with 4% casting absentee ballots by mail. In 2020, the percentage of absentee ballots jumped to 16% and in-person voting on Election Day fell to 34%.

That seems to imply fewer people cast ballots at their polling places on Election Day as they take advantage of other options instead, but that's not the case in every precinct.

Lewis said voters near Moultrie, where early in-person voting is held, are significantly more likely to take advantage of it. Large percentages of voters farther from the county seat continue to vote at their local polling places.

In other words, the precincts farther from Moultrie tend to have fewer registered voters, but more of them tend to use the polling place in the precinct.

What polling places might close?

Under the closure plan that was originally discussed, the county would close eight polling places and consolidate those precincts into others. Going away would be Thigpen, Hartsfield, Hamilton, Murphy, Lee, Mill Creek, Ty Ty and Crosland.

Under the plan that seems more favored now, most of those precincts would stay. The only one consistently considered for closing is Crosland. Lewis said it would not be inconvenient for a voter in what's now Crosland Precinct to go a few miles down Highway 319 to the Norman Park polling site.

Commissioners' views

At the June 22 meeting, Colquitt County commissioners showed general opposition to consolidating precincts.

"I'd hate to see any of them close," Commissioner Johnny Hardin said. He and others emphasized that many of the voters in the outlying precincts are elderly and they wanted to accommodate them as much as they can.

If Lewis can find alternate voting sites within the precincts where the county currently maintains the polling place, it would solve the immediate problems associated with those buildings.

"The more we can get out of the county buildings, the better," Lewis agreed.

Timing

Commissioner Barbara Jelks urged action.

"If we're going to move forward with this, we need to do it soon," said Jelks, who serves on the working group. "We don't want to do it with a presidential election."

Lewis also has one eye on the election calendar.

"This is an off year, so we would like to get it in place by the next May primary," he said.

But there are two events coming up that are causing Lewis to pause.

This spring, the Georgia Legislature passed an election overhaul that touches on many aspects of how elections operate. Lewis will attend a conference in August where experts will tell elections superintendents how to apply the law to their procedures. The conference will clarify whether any part of the law would affect consolidation or the moving of voting sites.

The U.S. Census Bureau will release data Aug. 16 that will be used for redistricting, with a more complete release expected by the end of September. While district lines have nothing to do with precinct boundaries, Lewis said the census data might also have a bearing on how officials want to proceed.

A decision in late fall should still allow time to properly notify voters of any changes that affect them before the primary election for state and county offices in May, he said.