AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – Dozens packed the Board of Elections meeting to raise concerns about the plan to close some polling sites.“It’s a serious concern and you want to give people as much time as you can to digest this information because some will get that voter registration card and say ‘ahh I know I’m registered to vote’,” said Reverend Melvin Ivey, of the Augusta Chapter of the NAACP.The Elections Office laid out a plan to merge seven smaller precincts and polling sites,saying with so many casting ballots during early voting fewer are turning out on Election Day, so this would streamline staffing.“We don’t know who’s going to show up on Election Day, so we have to staff that polling place with the assumption that 100 percent of the people are going to show up, so we have over staffed polling locations with very little turnout,” said Elections Director Travis Doss.The Elections Board is considering voting on the plan so it is in place by this May’s state primaries and city elections, but some board members worry about the impact on turnout.
“Any changes to precincts like this this short period of time brings about a lot of voter confusion, and that confusion will lead to voters not going to vote or going to vote in the wrong place and not being able to and turning and going back home,” Eugene Beverly a Democrat Party appointment to the Elections Board.
But other board members acknowledge there could be some voter confusion, but say impacted voters would be notified weeks before the election…