Voting Sites a Concern in Minot, North Dakota

Liason committee looks at polling sites, emergency operations
By DAVE CALDWELL, Staff Writer dcaldwell@minotdailynews.com
POSTED: December 1, 2009 Save | Print | Email | Read comments | Post a comment Email: "Liason committee looks at polling sites, emergency operations"
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Although the issue has been discussed in some detail by community leaders, any changes made to the locations or numbers of area polling places will not take place in 2010.

That decision was reached Monday by a liaison committee of Minot and Ward County leaders, mostly due to the lack of opportunity to iron out the details in a small remaining time window.

Ward County Auditor-Treasurer Devra Smestad broached the subject some months ago at a liaison committee meeting, reasoning that based on a tremendously successful early voting center the county held during the 2008 election, the entire county might benefit from using similar techniques.

Smestad said that currently, a total of 17 Minot and 15 county voting precincts have to be staffed on Election Day. Reducing that number, even just in Minot, would provide for an increase in cost-effectiveness. The early precinct, held at the county courthouse, provided a working model that featured all the ballots for individual precincts in one place.

"It would also make for an easier 'find' for the people to go to their polling centers," Smestad said Monday. "Many, many people, because of the different precincts, have no idea for sure where they vote, and they get sent from one polling site to another polling site to another polling site."

By reducing even the Minot precincts from 17 to one, two or four, it would no longer matter which polling place a voter went to, as all centers would have all ballots. That way, she said, if a person living on North Hill works on South Hill and wants to vote next door to his place of business at lunch time, he would be able to do so. Reducing the number of polling places would also cut down on manpower needed to staff them, positions that she often has to scramble to fill at the last minute.

"It's getting harder and harder all the time," Smestad said.

Another factor to consider, she said, is that many areas are growing more hesitant to allow for relaxed security procedures in schools that are necessitated by allowing the public to enter to vote.

School officials, however, downplayed any existing concerns for the Minot district.

"We don't have a problem with using the schools," said Minot Public School Board President Nancy Langseth, a liaison committee member. "We have discussed it at great length."

Langseth said that polls are usually set a fair distance away from student activity. School board member Jackie Velk, another committee member, added that Supt. David Looysen welcomed opportunities "to get people into the schools."

Complicating any hope of making changes in the near future is a December 2009 statutory deadline to designate polling places for 2010.

Committee member and Minot alderman Chuck Barney said he wasn't comfortable with trying to rush the process through the city council.

"I have no idea how the council feels as a whole," Barney said, adding that rushing through discussions in order to meet such a deadline would leave constituents largely out of the process.

"It's a big change to some people," Barney said. "To do it between now and the next election would be almost upheaval."

Smestad made the suggestion that polling places remain unchanged for 2010, leaving plenty of time to work out potential issues before the next elections.

The committee voted unanimously to do so.

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