Holland Plan to Reduce Polling Locations Raises Questions

Touted as an effort to reduce costs, Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland’s plan to consolidate 20 voting precincts into 10, introduced to the Jacksonville City Council on Sept. 22 as Ordinance 2009-764, will be considered by the Council during their meeting on Tuesday night.  Unlike a similar ordinance passed in July that consolidated voting precincts without reducing polling locations (24 precincts shared a location with another precinct), the proposed ordinance would result in the closure of 8 polling locations.

Although it is difficult to quantify the impact of these closures, a review of recent studies on this topic leaves little doubt that such changes result in significant (2-7%) reductions in turnout of affected voters for subsequent elections.  In an age of narrow majorities in legislative bodies and elections decided by razor-thin margins, the importance of an objective, impartial approach to these types of decisions should be obvious.  However, an analysis of party affiliation statistics, 2008 presidential election results and voter demographic composition of the 8 Duval County voting precincts with polling locations slated for closure raises serious questions about the fairness and impartiality of Supervisor Holland’s plan.

For example, major party affiliation among voters assigned to the 8 impacted polling locations is 57% Democratic and 28% Republican, although only 45% of Duval County’s registered voters are Democrats and 36% Republicans.  Voters assigned to these polling locations voted for Barack Obama over John McCain by a wide margin (62% to 38%) in the 2008 presidential election, although Obama narrowly lost to McCain in Duval County 49% to 51%.  Finally, the 8 impacted polling locations serve a voter group that is 48% minority and 52% white, compared to an overall Duval County voter group that is 38% minority and 62% white.  These figures clearly indicate that any reduction in voter turnout resulting from the elimination of the 8 polling locations proposed in Ordinance 2009-764 would have a disproportionate impact on Democratic voters, moderate “swing” voters and minority voters.

I’m all for controlling costs and understand that budgets are extremely tight, but the estimated savings of $1,200 per election per eliminated voting precinct is not worth the erosion in public trust and bad publicity that this ordinance in its current form would bring.  I encourage the Council to hold out for a more fair and equitable plan that serves the interests of all citizens.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 8:21 PM and is filed under Local Politics, Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.