The Columbia County Board of Elections is looking at possibly making some changes to several voting precincts.
The topic was discussed during the Board of Elections meeting on Tuesday, March 21. Nancy Gay, the executive director for the board, spoke about the changes that were being considered before emphasizing that nothing is definite yet for most of the changes. One that has been confirmed is the changing of precinct 120, which is moving from the Gold Cross building on Belair Road to Harvest Pointe Fellowship, which is also on North Belair.
“Harvest Pointe (Fellowship), which is the old Gibbs Library just agreed, and we got their agreement yesterday (Thursday, March 23),” Gay said. “So, to me that’s kind of a done deal, which is my biggest one because that’s the one I had to do something with. That one will be done. The voters that are assigned to precinct 120 at Gold Cross will be moving to Harvest Pointe. It will still be called precinct 120.”
The reason these changes are being looked at is due to the redistrict the county went through last year and now trying to balance the precinct populations, Gay said.
“That’s what we’re going to do now, mainly in the Harlem and Grovetown area because that’s where all the growth is going,” Gay said. “Prior to this last redistricting, that area, the Harlem/Grovetown area, they were divided by congressional lines and senate lines. So, they were very chopped up and we couldn’t really, we just had some wonky numbers and lines. But now that they’re all the same information out there, we should be able to balance out those precincts better.”
An example Gay gave of an area needing balance was the Harlem area, stating precincts 025 (Bessie Thomas Center) and 026 (Philadelphia Methodist Church) were across the street from one other, but were split in the congressional seat pre-redistricting. Precinct 025 has 877 voters and 026 has 3,153 voters.
“We’re going to try and redraw those lines to try and balance the population out, that’s all,” Gay said. “Then we’ve got to find another precinct in the area for the health department at 019, that’s really where all the growth is in our county. But that one is trickier because they have all the split lines out in that area.”
When looking for new locations, Gay said there are several factors to take into consideration, including electrical requirements, ADA compliance, where the voting precinct is located and the parking lot of the location.
“With this equipment…you have to have certain electrical requirements to run it,” Gay said. “You can have six machines on a 10-amp circuit, or you can have eight machines on a 20-amp circuit. So that all plays a factor into it.”
When it comes to where the precinct is located, Gay said the county tries to keep the precincts between 2,500 and 3,000 voters, but due to the growth in the county that could be increased.
“If you have enough equipment and enough workers, which we do in Columbia County, we can have these bigger precincts,” Gay said. “We’re going to try that out and see how it works. Advanced voting is always an option and people love that.”
Other proposed precincts changes include redrawing, combining and moving precincts 111 (Lakeside Middle School), 136 (Blue Ridge Elementary School) and possibly 137 (Christ the King Lutheran Church); 019 (Columbia County Health Department) being split; precincts 020 (Harlem Branch Library), 022 (Harlem Senior Center), 024 (Second Mt. Moriah Baptist Church), 025 (Bessie Thomas Center), 026 (Philadelphia Methodist Church), 030 (Grovetown Liberty Park), 031 (Grovetown United Methodist Church), 033 (Grovetown Fire Station #2) and 034 (Grove First Baptist Church) being redrawn for balance, with 034 possibly being moved; combining 061 (Greenbrier High School) and 064 (Grace Baptist Church of Evans), combining 080 (Westside Baptist Church) and 090 (Abilene Baptist Church) and combining 063 (Riverview Church in Evans) and 131 (Journey Community Church). The possibility of moving the locations of precincts 076 (Marvin Methodist Church) and 015 (Lewis Memorial Methodist Church) is also being considered.
Gay stressed that right now these changes are only being looked at, and besides the change to precinct 120, no other changes have yet been made.
Voters whose precincts are changing will receive notification of the changes and will get a new precinct card, Gay said. However, notification will not come until all the changes are completed that way the resolution can be done all at once. She added she hopes any changes will be done by August.
“The Harlem and Grovetown cities will have November elections,” Gay said. “They will have qualifying in August, and we would like ideally to have the changes done before August.”
The Columbia County Board of Elections okayed letting Gay work on the changes.
