By Shannon McFarlin
Paris, Tenn.–At Monday night’s meeting of the Henry County Election Commission, the panel voted unanimously to continue to table a formal decision on whether to establish vote centers instead of precincts until after redistricting information is available.
The vote came at the conclusion of a well-attended open forum called to familiarize the public with the proposal to establish the vote centers in the county.
The forum began with questions or comments from a dozen audience members, followed by a presentation from Elections Administrator DeLaina Green which addressed their concerns.
The vote center proposal would downsize the number of precincts in the county and allow voters to cast their ballots at any vote center on Election Day. Green has said at previous meetings that the state is moving toward the concept of vote centers to replace precincts.
She said in Henry County such a plan would be cost-effective; continuing with 13 precincts is not feasible for several different reasons: not all are secure, not all are ADA accessible and not all have adequate parking. In addition, all the ‘vote centers’ would have to be ‘hard-wired’ with both internet and WiFi.
Originally, the proposal was to downsize the 13 precincts to six vote centers, which would be located at schools in the county: Harrelson, Lakewood, Henry, Grove, Henry County High School and TCAT.
Many of the concerns voiced at Monday night’s meeting centered on the Cottage Grove area, with Cottage Grove Vice Mayor John Weiher noting that Cottage Grove was the only municipality omitted from having a vote center under the proposal. “So, you’re asking us to drive to Puryear to vote in our Cottage Grove municipal elections?”, he said.
Jean Hessing also voiced concern about not only Cottage Grove, but Springville, Mansfield, Buchanan and the other small communities not represented.
Green said since the original concept was proposed, Cottage Grove Baptist Church has stepped up and said they are willing to install hard wire at their church, which would allow it to be considered as a vote center.
She also said that Reggie Coles, Fire Chief of the Paris Landing Volunteer Fire Department, has offered to run hard wire into the community center at Buchanan so it could be used as a vote center.
The volunteer fire departments which have been used as polling places in the past are not adequate due to security issues (so many people having keys to the buildings) and problems caused when there is a fire and the polling place has to be shut down while the building is in use for firefighting.
She said either Henry School or New Harmony Baptist could be available for a vote center for that area now, too. “Since our last meeting, the layout of our proposal is a lot different because these communities have been stepping up and giving us help with this,” Green said.
The bottom line, Green said, “is that 13 precincts is too many for Henry County.”
She said, “Even with all 13 precincts voting at the November 2020 election, we still had 21 percent voter turnout. If you’re going to focus on something, you should focus on getting out the vote. That’s what we should be focused on.”
Henry County Democratic Party Chairman Dianne Carlisle voiced strong objection to the proposal, saying, “Anything that interferes” with one person being able to vote “is voter suppression.”
Charles Steer of Cottage Grove said he has voted in Cottage Grove for 25 years and never thought there was a problem with security. “It gives you a sense of civic duty,” he said. “Anything that makes it more burdensome to vote is not a good thing. We should be making it easier.”
Mike Frederick said he was “dead set against” anything which caused people to either not vote at all or to use mail-in ballots. Carole Walsh said she used a mail-in ballot at the last election and said was not a negative and that it allowed voters to look up candidates’ voting records and do research on issues.
River Byrd, who was formerly the Henry County Democratic Party Chair, said, “Overall, I like the idea of voting centers. I like the idea of being able to go to any voting center to vote. I see the pros and cons to it.”
Several people in the audience asked what the duties of the Election Commission are and how they arrived at the proposal for vote centers.
Green said in her presentation that the proposal has been discussed “multiple times” at board meetings. “We’ve put a lot of time and thought into this. We’ve looked at the issue many times over several years.”
A big issue facing the Election Commission now is redistricting and the impact that will have on operations. She noted that establishing vote centers is not an easy process and it requires the Election Commission to formally approve it, followed by the County Commission’s approval and then the Secretary of State.
The Election Commission is aiming for 2024 before the vote center concept could be implemented, she said. “It’s not going to happen overnight.”
Photo: Election Administrator DeLaina Green speaks as Board Chairman Stephen Goggans listens. (Shannon McFarlin photo).