Five precincts in Marion County have been temporarily relocated to accommodate social distancing guidelines for the upcoming Nov. 3 general election, affecting approximately 5,000 voters.
To keep workers and voters six feet apart, new locations with extra space were needed, according to Circuit Clerk Janette Nolan. She got approval from the Board of Supervisors Monday morning to relocate the Cedar Grove precinct to Cedar Grove Baptist Church, the Carley precinct to Bunker Hill Baptist Church, the Goss precinct to Goss Baptist Church, the Union precinct to Baylis Chapel United Methodist Church and the Pine Burr precinct to Pine Burr Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“It is for this election only due to COVID,” she specified.
There is a $250 rental fee at Baylis Chapel, which includes a deep cleaning before and after the election, and Pine Burr Church has a $150 fee that will include set up and cleaning.
Cedar Grove Baptist Church, Bunker Hill Baptist Church and Goss Baptist Church will be available to the county at no charge.
The voting precinct at Jefferson Middle School will be in the cafeteria for the election rather than the lobby.
The circuit clerk’s department is purchasing a ballot on-demand system with grant money that will allow for ballots to be printed on the spot at a reduced cost of just 7 cents each, according to Nolan.
“If we have a higher demand than expected, we won’t run out because we can just print more,” she said. “It’s all certified and counted as if it were going through a printer.”
In the past Nolan said she had ordered absentee ballots based on previous elections’ numbers, and there would always be extras that had to be shredded with each ballot costing the county between 34 and 38 cents apiece.
Nolan said she is also purchasing synchronization units for electronic poll books because of changes to the absentee balloting system.
“Absentee votes now become the final vote. Up until now if you voted absentee two weeks before the election because you were going to be out of town but turned out you were in town and wanted to change your vote, you could go to the precinct and change your vote. Now if you vote absentee, it’s your final vote, and the ballots don’t go out to the precinct,” she said. “So we have to have all the poll books synced up with all of the absentees that have been cast. In a normal year we could do that manually, but that’s not a risk I’m willing to take.”
She added there’s a 50-50 chance she will secure a grant to pay for the synchronization system, but if a grant isn’t secured it will be paid for out of fees that would not come out of the regular budget.
Voting Locations:
- Cedar Grove-Cedar Grove Baptist Church
- Carley-Bunker Hill Baptist Church
- Goss-Goss Baptist Church
- Union-Baylis Chapel United Methodist Church
- Pine Burr-Pine Burr Church of the Lord Jesus Christ
- National Guard-National Guard Armory
- Morris-Improve Church Activities Building
- Popetown-Exposition Center
- Foxworth-County Voting Building (2191 Mississippi 586)
- Morgantown-Morgantown Fire Department
- Little Rock-County Voting Building (1078 Mississippi 586)
- City Hall-City Hall
- Darbun-County Voting Building (281 Mississippi 586)
- Courthouse-Justice Court
- Balls Mill-County Voting Building (883 Old Highway 35 S.)
- Kokomo-Southwest Fire Station 2
- Pittman-Southwest Fire Station 1
- Sandy Hook-Southwest Fire Station 4
- South Columbia-Courthouse Annex
- Jefferson Middle School-Cafeteria
- East Columbia-County Extension Building
- Hub-Old Hub School
