I am curious about why I have to pass two close voting sites and be assigned to one farther away.

[mfcorey1]

Is it because I am a democrat? I will make a call on Monday to inquire why.

[empedocles]

1. Prosecutors doubt 'coincidence'

for good reasons.

[procon]

2. Gerrymandering? That would be my first guess.

Or maybe you just live in a very densely populated area and it's a matter of where polling places are available.

[LakeSuperiorView]

3. Gerrymandering?

Compact voting precincts should rarely cause one to be closer to two polling places than their own polling place, but it could happen by chance. Distribution of buildings suitable for use as polling places could cause it.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. The shape of your precinct?

[beachbum bob]

5. contact your local elections board, your local democratic committee people....time to bring lawyers

in. Common practice in heavily democratic precincts and minority neighborhood to eliminate polling places, the number of voting machines....all to suppress the voter's rights to vote

[wasupaloopa]

6. Can you vote by ma

L

[lpbk2713]

7. Mine was changed from a church two blocks away.

To another three miles away. I was told it was because the first one wasn't handicap accessible.

[Towlie]

16. That would sound reasonable except that every voting site should be handicapped accessible.

[lpbk2713]

19. The first one had a ramp but it may have been too steep.

And I don't know anything about the bathrooms.

[MineralMan]

8. Precinct boundaries?

In my precinct, the polling place is on the edge of the precinct boundaries. Lots of people live near it, but not in that precinct. Nothing nefarious going on there. In an urban area like St. Paul, MN, in residential neighborhoods such things are pretty common. In some precincts, people on different sides of the same street in the same block are in different precincts and vote at different locations. Precincts have borders based on population numbers in the neighborhoods. Someone's always on a border, since the area of most precincts is fairly small.

The number of registered voters per precinct here is about 2500.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

9. Moreover, why do you have to register?

You don’t need to register to pay your taxes.

Voter registration is a tool of voter suppression as has been for decades.

[MichMan]

10. No rules on voting at all?

Are you suggesting that anyone should be allowed to show up and vote wherever they like?

Citizens or not? Not even from that district or state? Under the age of 18?

I live over an hour from Detroit, but closer to Ohio. Should I be able to vote in either place if I feel like it instead of near home?

[EndGOPPropaganda]

14. Dude. Of course we know who voters are

That’s like asking “no rules on taxes?” when we say “don’t need to register to pay taxes.”


The point is: you should be able to show up at the polls, “register” same day, and VOTE.

Arbitrary registration deadlines were used to suppress the black vote during Jim Crow. And they are used today.

[MichMan]

20. You said, why do you have to register?

"Moreover, why do you have to register?

You don’t need to register to pay your taxes.

Voter registration is a tool of voter suppression as has been for decades. "



Your words not mine.... Now you are saying you should be able to register the same day. Make up your mind

[EndGOPPropaganda]

21. Registration is a tool of voter suppression.

That’s what I said.
Registration is a tool of voter suppression.

The election board can get the names and info of eligible voters the same day as voting. You want to call that registration, fine. But I’m saying that no registration in advance is needed.

[Igel]

11. Yes, you do.

You register when you get your TIN or SSN.

After that, it's your employer who registers. If you're self-employed, you renew your registration when you send in that 1040SE.

They confirm eligibility by examining your citizenship or immigration documents.

[EndGOPPropaganda]

15. Exactly. It's automatic

[appleannie1943]

12. I live in a township so my voting place is in that township.

I have to pass through the incorporated 'town' of B*****ville and their polling place in order to reach mine. It has nothing to do with my being a dem, it is simply the way it has always been. The 'town' has mayoral races, the township does not. The 'town' sits in the middle of the township and the people that live in the boundaries of the town vote in a chuch basement in town. People that live in the township vote in the basement of the grange and the shortest route to the grange is through town and passed the church where the townfolk are voting.

[Igel]

13. No details, and the details matter.

In some places the BOE is non-partisan. (It might still be partisan, but they white out the labels.)

In other places, the BOE is almost but not quite evenly divided.

In other places, the BOE is as partisan as anything else administrative can be.


But mostly BOEs are honest brokers trying to apportion limited resources to help the most people. There are regs for these things, and mostly its the staff that makes the actual decisions for BOE rubber-stamping.


Sometimes they close a voting site because the rules change. "Oops, can't have it there, because of __________"--maybe the site said "no", maybe it's not ADA compliant, maybe there's some church/state thing going on. Maybe it's too small or under construction.

Sometimes they close a voting site because past voter turnout doesn't justify having 2 sites in one area where another area with much higher turnout has 1. They look at voters/machine, voters/polling station. The problem is that the past doesn't accurately predict the future. So in a heavy turnout year suddenly people scream because the 3 voting booths that the last time had 10 people use them all day was reduced to 1, and 300 people are lined up around the block to use it. They do some averaging, but that explains a lot. Even after separating out the numbers by kind of election (general, primary, midterm, local, runoff, special ...) No, you probably don't know what turnout is at a site until you look at the numbers for the day, not just the numbers when you show up. BOEs don't often have voter turnout results in half-hour increments (although with electronic voting they could). And even then, that says nothing about how long it takes somebody to vote--produce documentation, chat with the poll workers, go to the machine and cast the vote ...

Sometimes they close a voting site because of equipment issues. "Last year we had 220 voting machines. There was a building leak and we're down to 200."

[EffieBlack]

17. Probably because of the shape of your district and location of your precinct

Polling places are assigned by precinct, not by party.

[Tipperary]

18. I can vote anywhere in my county. I do have a specific "assigned" voting place. But I have voted

at other locations, especially during early voting.