The Marion County Board will be asked at its December meeting to merge 22 of the county’s precincts into 11.
County Clerk Steve Fox is recommending the consolidation as a result of a new law signed by the Governor that allows precincts to have up to 1,200 voters. He reports all the proposed consolidations will take place within the same townships.
“It would eliminate the cost of preparing the ballots for the 2nd precinct into the one, and also free up some election judges for us. As far as voters are concerned, the only difference they will see is there will be one table and one set of judges so they don’t have to figure out if they are Alma 1 or 2 they will just be Alma. It shouldn’t cause any problems for the voters because they are still going to the polling places they have always went to and work with the voting judges that have always worked there.”
Fox says the change should be a big help in finding enough judges.
“We need about 250 election judges in a big election like the November election. This could shave off 50 of those positions and we struggle to get 250, so what it hopefully will allow us to do is to completely man all of our precincts with the number we are needing for the election.”
Fox estimates an election set up savings of $2,500 per consolidated precinct. If the full county board concurs, Marion County will go from 48 precincts to 37.
The precincts proposed for consolidation include Kinmundy 1 and 2, Alma 1 and 2, Patoka 1 and 2, Sandoval 1 and 2, Odin 1 and 2, Centralia 1 and 2, Centralia 4 and 10, Centralia 5 and 8, Centralia 9 and 18, Centralia 13 and 16, and Salem 1 and 3.
Fox sees the day coming when there will be voting centers where voters can go to any polling place in the county, have their ballot pulled up electronically, and be able to vote.
Fox has also announced plans to purge the voting records of those who have passed away or no longer live in a precinct through a post card mail out early next year. His goal is to have the work completed before the June primary.
