On Tuesday, residents of Biddeford will get to voice their opinions on the city’s plan to consolidate all of its polling places into one site.
City Clerk Carmen Morris recently presented the recommendation of the committee that had been convened by the city council to investigate the issue. The recommendation is to hold all voting at Biddeford High School’s Tiger Gym on Maplewood Avenue.
The location was selected due to its capacity for parking and voters, handicap accessibility and school officials’ willingness to host elections there.
Currently, residents who live in wards 1 and 2 vote at the public access television studio; residents of wards 3, 4 and 5 vote at the J. Richard Martin Community Center; and those living in wards 6 and 7 vote at the Rochambeau Club. The city found inadequacies within the current polling places, and charged the committee with looking to find a location to solve the issues at hand.
The high school seems to solve many of the problems ”“ including handicap accessibility, space constraints, lack of parking and scheduling ”“ presented by the multiple polling places in use.
The Tiger Gym offers plenty of space for all the voting equipment, according to Morris. One polling place would also mean candidates could stay at one place rather than travel to multiple polling places for hand-shaking on election day; it would be more efficient for city staff to set up; and it could save the city in election costs, she said.
The only apparent downside ”“ raised by some councilors ”“ could possibly be a parking issue. But parking may not be as much of a problem as they think. Students will be dismissed from school before the majority of voters get out of work ”“ which is the first opportunity for many people to get to the polls. Election workers see bursts of voters trying to get their vote in before they head to work, during lunch-time hours and after people get out of work.
At 21,277, Biddeford’s population doesn’t seem to warrant multiple polling places. With just a few thousand more residents than Saco, the city should be able to host voting at one location, as Saco does. Once a city’s population gets into the hundreds of thousands, it’s easy to see why multiple polling stations are necessary, but since Biddeford only had 2,377 voters turn out in November and less than 1,400 at last June’s school budget referendum, one polling place shouldn’t cause major problems.
Some people may have transportation issues, but those can be easily solved by either voting absentee or arranging for one of the services that offers rides to those in need on election day. Residents of the downtown area who want to vote in person may need to walk a little farther, but it’s certainly feasible to walk to the high school from Main Street and the surrounding area.
It’s worth giving the recommendation a try for a few elections, to see what the pros and cons are, and if it’s not working out, the city can once again consider its options. And although the decision is up to the city council, residents who have an opinion on the proposal have the opportunity to share it Tuesday, May 20 at 7 p.m. during the council’s regularly scheduled meeting at City Hall.
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Today’s editorial was written by City Editor Robyn Burnham Rousseau on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski by calling 282-1535, ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.
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