Reason No. 3: Allowing countywide Election Day voting for most, but not all elections would cause voter confusion

Right now, 1,000 to 7,000 voters are sent away from polling places on EVERY Election Day.

The GOP County Chair, who has the power to block countywide Election Day voting because of her party's participation in primary elections, argues that we should not even allow it for the many other elections in which her party is not directly involved.

Her position means that legally registered voters show up in the wrong polling place on Election Day in the six or seven non-primary elections between primaries will still have to struggle needlessly to find the right place to vote.

The truth is that eliminating the requirement for home precinct voting with countywide voting on every Election Day would totally eliminate the confusion about where to vote, but as long as the GOP party chair objects to allowing countywide Election Day voting in primaries, that's not going to happen. 

One way to get around her objections would be for the county commission to approve countywide Election Day voting for non-primary elections but accommodate her by continuing to require voting in home precincts on Election Day during primary elections. 

(Primary elections happen only once every two years. In between there are six or seven other non-primary elections.)

This would mean we'd have countywide voting on Election Day -- just like we do for Early Voting -- for most elections: non-partisan city and school board elections, general elections when voters choose among candidates of all parties and elections where state constitutional amendments are on the ballot.

This is not the best solution, but it would limit the confusion to just one election every two years instead of on every single Election Day.

She says this would be too confusing, and our commissioners are going along with her, but far fewer voters would be affected by the home precinct rule than are affected by it now. 

Speak to the Commission: