Christian County residents who voted in the last two elections at Friendship House, Cedar Grove Baptist Church or Concord Baptist Church should not return to those sites for the Nov. 7 general election. They won’t be open for voting.
The county election board voted 2-to-1 in a meeting Tuesday afternoon at the courthouse to reduce the number of election day voting centers from 16 to 13 — and to add a third site at the Boys and Girls Club for early voting.
The decision followed a motion by Sheriff Tyler DeArmond, who serves on the election board and suggested early voting at the Boys and Girls Club, which is already an Election Day voting center, after residents spoke against closing Cedar Grove Baptist. (Adding an early voting option is contingent on approval from the Boys and Girls Club.)
Republican representative Philip Eastman voted with DeArmond for the poll changes, while Democratic representative Marvin Denison opposed the reduction in election day voting centers.
Denison said he opposed reducing the availability of voting locations but clarified after the vote that he did support adding Boys and Girls Club as an early voting option.
An issue of race?
Audrey Sivils was one of eight citizens who came to the meeting. She urged the board to keep Cedar Grove Baptist on East Second Street as a voting center to serve elderly and working class residents in the neighborhood.
Seven of the eight citizens who came to the board meeting were Black, and Sivils asked if the decision to close Cedar Grove Baptist as a polling site was based on the fact that her neighborhood is predominately Black. All of the election board members are white.
Eastman said he didn’t appreciate her suggesting that race was a factor in the decision.
Sivils responded, “You don’t live in my neighborhood, and you don’t hear the things that I do.” She said it was her right to state her opinion.
By the numbers
County Clerk Melinda Humphries, who chairs the election board but votes only when there is a tie, stressed that she supported reducing the number of election day voting centers. Closing three voting centers among those with the lowest turnout will allow the clerk’s office to put more voting machines and workers at voting centers with more voters.
Humphries said she supported using the data to make decisions.
“We don’t look at locations,” she said. “We look at numbers.”
Humphries said voters have more options than ever before to cast a ballot. Changes resulting from new state laws passed during the coronavirus pandemic allow voters three days of early voting. Elderly voters who cannot get to the polls, and those who don’t have transportation, can request an absentee ballot, she said.
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Despite those conveniences and extra efforts in the last general election to publicize polling sites through ads, mailings and social media, she said, many people don’t vote.
“That shows a real disconnect in our community,” said Tishauna Douglas, who also spoke in favor of keeping Cedar Grove Baptist. She questioned if the community wants to address low voter turnout.
In the November general election, 1% of Christian County ballots were cast at Cedar Grove, and 2% were cast at Friendship House on the Christian Care campus for seniors. Concord Baptist had 4%. The three sites with the largest turnout were The Bruce (18%), Senior Citizens Center (12%) and Indian Hills Elementary School (10%).
Tuesday’s decision was the latest in a series of changes the election board has made to polling sites in the wake of the pandemic.
In the May 2022 primary, there were eight voting centers, but many voters were apparently confused by the changes and did not know the pre-pandemic precinct sites were no longer in use. To address the low turnout, the election board voted last summer to increase the number of voting centers to 16. Those sites were used last November and in the May primary.
Nikki Chambers, president of the local League of Women Voters, said at Tuesday’s meeting that she knew the board had a difficult decision to make. But for the sake of continuity, she said she believed the board should stick with the 16 established voting centers.
Chambers also read a letter from league member Carolyn Self, who urged the board to not close the poll at Friendship House.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
