Marion County election commissioners say they are running out of space for storage and training at the courthouse.
They’re asking the Board of Supervisors to renovate one of the former homes at the BusinessPlex for their use, although supervisors say the county doesn’t have the money to do that.
All five commissioners, one from each supervisory district, recently addressed supervisors with their concerns:
District 1 - Mike Bennett
District 2 - Van Lowry Jr.
District 3 - Smitty Bracey
District 4 - Thomas Rowell
District 5 - Charles “Coach” Marshall.
The office has moved several times over the years, from the former jail facility, to one downstairs at the courthouse and now upstairs in the former Circuit Court offices, which have moved across the hall.
“Unfortunately, our office is used a lot of times by the judges as a witness room,” Bennett said. “Even recently, during the runoff election, we had our ballot boxes in there and the judge had allowed somebody to use it, which is not a real good thing with election materials in there.”
Other concerns include training space.
“During this election year for the primary and the runoff we have had to go to four places for training,” Bennett said. “We’ve been in the main courtroom, our office, the Chancery Clerk’s office as well as in Justice Court.
“It also brings up another thing. During the runoff, Justice Court had court going on. You’re trying to have an election with prisoners coming through in chains and so on; it is an issue. We also had our election central location for the runoff in the lobby of the courthouse because court was going to be in session in the main courtroom.”
Commissioners said renovating one of the houses at the BusinessPlex (former training school) could satisfy all of the needs except a central location for elections days, but District 2 Supervisor Terry Broome said the county just doesn’t have enough money to do that.
But the board and the election commissioners agreed that storage and classrooms were needed and agreed to study locations at the BusinessPlex more.
“We’ll have to work on your needs, not your wants,” Broome concluded.
