{"id":7456,"date":"2014-01-23T11:44:44","date_gmt":"2014-01-23T16:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=7456"},"modified":"2014-01-23T12:01:11","modified_gmt":"2014-01-23T17:01:11","slug":"lowndes-second-worst-in-georgia-for-voting-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/lowndes-second-worst-in-georgia-for-voting-access.html","title":{"rendered":"Lowndes second worst in Georgia for voting access"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nMaybe changing the precincts every year isn’t such a good idea:\r\na new report rankings Lowndes County second worst in the state\r\nfor voting access.\r\nAnd it’s not as if nobody has complained about this before.\r\n

\r\nCody Gibson\r\nwrote for ValdostaToday 20 January 2014,\r\n\r\nLowndes Ranks Second Worst in Georgia for Voting Access<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n\r\nLowndes County had the dubious honor of having the highest rate of provisional ballots cast in the state\u2014more than 10 times higher than the state average. The extremely high deviation from the state average on this factor was largely responsible for Lowndes County\u2019s position as one of the worst performers in the state. The report\u2019s findings provide insights that can help officials, policymakers, and advocates better understand voting administration practices that work.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n By comparing voter access and experience across Georgia\u2019s counties, officials can determine the best practices for ensuring that citizens have an equal opportunity to participate in the democratic process.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nI’m not familiar with the Center for American Progress Action Fund,\r\nbut that’s\r\na very interesting study,\r\n\r\nUnequal Access:\r\nA County-by-County Analysis of Election Administration in Swing States in the 2012 Election<\/a>\r\nby Anna Chu:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThis report evaluates the election performance of counties in the 17\r\nstates that had the smallest margin of victory between the two\r\npresidential candidates in 2012. This analysis allows us to better\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nunderstand how well the election process is working within a state,\r\nand will hopefully encourage state and local officials to consider\r\nhow they can improve the voting experience for their citizens.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nMany of those provisional ballots could have been because of people confused about\r\nwhere they should vote<\/a>.\r\nVoting precincts have changed every election for years here.\r\nThere were\r\n9\r\nprecincts for\r\n2013<\/a>,\r\n12 for\r\n2012<\/a>,\r\n12 for\r\n2011<\/a>\r\n\r\n(2011 precinct maps)<\/a>,\r\n32 in\r\n\r\n2008<\/a>\r\nand\r\n35\r\nin\r\n\r\n2004<\/a> (2004 map<\/a>).\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n\r\n
2013<\/th>\r\n2012<\/th>\r\n2011<\/th>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n
\r\nPct 1<\/td>Pct 1<\/td><\/td>Hahira Historical Society<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
<\/td><\/td>\r\n\r\nPrecinct 1<\/a>\r\n<\/td>Newsome St. Church<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
\r\nPct 2<\/td>Pct 2<\/td>\r\n\r\nPrecinct 2<\/a>\r\n<\/td>Old Pine Grove Elementary School Gym<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
<\/td>Pct 3<\/td><\/td>Trinity Presbyterian Church<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
<\/td><\/td>\r\n\r\nPrecinct 3<\/a>\r\n<\/td>Westminister Presbyterian Church<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
\r\nPct 3<\/td>Pct 4<\/td>\r\n\r\nPrecinct 4<\/a>\r\n<\/td>Northside Baptist Church Gym<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
<\/td>Pct 5<\/td>\r\n\r\nPrecinct 5<\/a>\r\n<\/td>Jaycee Park Activities Building<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
\r\nPct 4<\/td>Pct 6<\/td>\r\n\r\nPrecinct 6<\/a>\r\n<\/td>Naylor City Hall<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
<\/td>Pct 7<\/td>\r\n\r\nPrecinct 7<\/a>\r\n<\/td>Wood Valley Community Center<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
\r\nPct 5<\/td>Pct 8<\/td>\r\n\r\nPrecinct 8<\/a>\r\n<\/td>Rainwater Conference Center<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
\r\nPct 7<\/td>Pct 9<\/td>\r\n\r\nPrecinct 9<\/a>\r\n<\/td>New Clyattville Fire Station<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
\r\nPct 6<\/td>Pct 10<\/td>\r\n\r\nPrecinct 10<\/a>\r\n<\/td>Mildred Hunter Community Center<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
\r\nPct 8<\/td>Pct 11<\/td>\r\n\r\nPrecinct 11<\/a>\r\n<\/td>Dasher City Hall<\/td><\/tr>\r\n
\r\nPct 9<\/td>Pct 12<\/td>\r\n\r\nPrecinct 12<\/a>\r\n<\/td>South Lowndes Recreation Center<\/td><\/tr>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/center>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n\r\nFor example,\r\n\r\nTrinity Presbyterian Church<\/a>\r\nwas a polling place for a while, but its precinct got consolidated\r\ninto Pine Grove.\r\nI vote at Pine Grove, which currently is at\r\n\r\nthe old elementary school<\/a>,\r\nand was briefly at the church across the street.\r\nBefore that I voted at\r\n\r\nMt. Olive Church<\/a>,\r\nbut that one got consolidated.\r\nWay back I voted at the little special-purpose voting precinct building\r\non Cat Creek Road, but those are no more.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n
\r\n35 Lowndes County voting sites in 2004\r\n

\r\nNow\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nDeb Cox, Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections<\/a>,\r\nhas said that all this closing of precincts is because with\r\nearly voting, which is all at the Board of Elections building,\r\nthere’s not as much need for precincts on Election Day,\r\nand keeping many precincts open costs too much.\r\nEventually apparently they plan to get down to around three\r\nprecincts for the whole county.\r\nMaybe so, but the Board of Elections would do everybody a great service if they’d\r\njust cut to the chase and get to a precinct list that doesn’t change.\r\n

\r\nPlus there is still the issue that for example people in the\r\n\r\nEast End District<\/a>\r\nway back could walk to the Courthouse to vote, but now have to get a ride\r\nsomewhere, and not everybody has a car.\r\n

\r\nPatrick Davis wrote for\r\nexaminer.com 3 August 2012,\r\n\r\nLowndes County’s precinct consolidation opens door to disenfranchisement<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThis goes beyond that “we need to save money.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThis type of abrupt poll consolidation invites disenfranchisement.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nLonger lines at ‘consolidated’ poll locations, frustrated voters who\r\nmay just walk out of line or machines that may break down\r\nunexpectedly is a perfect storm of events that will lead to more\r\nproblems instead of efficiency.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nPrior to 2010 elections, these (2008) precincts were “consolidated”\r\nin Lowndes County. Most were Valdosta City precincts. The\r\npercentages represents how well Barack Obama did on Election Day at\r\nthose particular precincts in 2008.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nHe lists 9 precincts that have been consolidated.\r\nMt. Olive Church and Lake Park Civic Center are\r\non that list, as are seven others\r\nin the City of Valdosta.\r\nFive of those seven voted for Barack Obama in 2008,\r\nmost by wide margins.\r\n

\r\nThe only small precinct still open is\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nin Naylor<\/a>,\r\napparently because local citizens there used a little-known provision\r\nthat if you petition to keep your precinct open, it will stay open.\r\n

\r\nWhy do the voting precincts have to change every year?\r\n

\r\nAnd what can we do to encourage people to vote,\r\nrather than confusing them every year?\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maybe changing the precincts every year isn’t such a good idea: a new report rankings Lowndes County second worst in the state for voting access. And it’s not as if nobody has complained about this before. Cody Gibson wrote for ValdostaToday 20 January 2014, Lowndes Ranks Second Worst in Georgia for Voting Access, Lowndes County […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,49,70],"tags":[803,1424,7400,7402,1565,8704,8721,8728,8701,8702,12,7,3004,6,7401,1425],"class_list":["post-7456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-elections","category-ethics","tag-access","tag-board-of-elections","tag-center-for-american-progress-action-fund","tag-cody-gibson","tag-deb-cox","tag-economy","tag-elections","tag-ethics","tag-georgia","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-suppression","tag-valdosta","tag-valdostatoday","tag-voting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1Wg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7456"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7471,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7456\/revisions\/7471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}