Saturday, November 04, 2000
Voters: Beware changed precincts
By Marie McCain
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Do you know where you're supposed to cast your vote this year?
County boards of election across the country have had to change many polling places for this year's general election to comply with a 2-year-old federal requirement that voter precincts match U.S. Department of Commerce census blocks.
Some voters will continue to vote at the same location they have for years. Others — fewer than 10 percent of the registered voters in a county — may have to travel a bit farther to cast their ballots.
“It was a tough job,” said Julia Stautberg, director of the Hamilton County Board of Elections. “(Boundaries for) census blocks are railways, waterways or down the middle of roadways. A voter precinct line could run down the back of someone's yard.”
Federal officials thought it would be good to align the census and voting-precinct areas to make it easier to get information, considering that the 2000 census results will be released early in 2001.
The process involved overlaying computerized maps of voter precincts and census blocks, which were then manipulated until the two matched. It was further complicated by the requirement that voter precincts contain fewer than 1,000 registered voters. And it had to be done by Aug. 1.
In Butler County, election officials worked for two years.
“It was a very difficult, very expensive process, but we finished in July,” said Board of Elections Director Bob Mosketti. “We did it all in-house and used a private contractor to mail out cards alerting registered voters.”
The mass mailing cost Butler County at least $36,000, not to mention overtime hours and other employee expenses.
Between 8,000 and 10,000 of the 216,000 registered voters in Butler County had their polling places changed, he added.
In Hamilton County, officials don't have exact numbers on how many people's polling places changed. Nevertheless, mass mailings were sent in September to all 586,000 registered voters in the county, said Ms. Stautberg.
In Clermont County, Board of Elections Director Don Travis said notices were sent to all 115,000 registered voters two months ago. About 5,000 residents there had their precincts changed.
Warren County Board of Elections Director Beverly Moore said she couldn't say how many people would have to change polling places. She said registered voters were notified of the change by mail, but she couldn't say how many notices were mailed out.
Though the reorganization has been called an administrative nightmare by some officials, good has come from it.
“We now have very up-to-date county road maps,” said Mr. Mosketti. “I really believe that 99 percent of the boards of election will have much better mapping. That's a definite plus.”
“We already had good maps,” Ms. Stautberg said, “but say there was a new street ... it got us out and we got to see the places we were mapping.”
All the counties used census blocks created from the 1990 Census. It's unknown how many will have to redo the process next year as a result of the 2000 Census, but Butler County will probably be one of them.
It's an area that has had significant growth, and some areas may have to be divided as a result, officials there said.
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