polling sites

[Kenton Bird <kbird@uidaho.edu>]

I second John's motion.  I've often believed that Moscow needs more
than two polling places, especially in presidential election years.  
At the minimum, we need one in each quadrant of town (NE, NW, SE, SW) plus
downtown.   Not only would it reduce the congestion at the fairgrounds,
it would make it possible for some people to walk or ride a bike to a neighborhood
polling place, rather than driving across town.

Pullman this year had 14 polling places, most of them taking in two precincts.  The city used fire stations, schools, the Quality Inn motel and the lobbies of WSU residence halls as polling places.

In addition, precinct lines within Moscow need to be redrawn to reflect logical boundaries.  For example three precincts cross Main Street, a logical dividing line.  And voters from outside the city limits currently vote in precincts that include Moscow, making impossible a full analysis of urban vs. rural voting patterns.

I hope that data from the 2000 census will be used to create precincts that are approximately equal in population, recognize neighborhood identity, and lend themselves to multiple polling places.
--Kenton

> I tend to vote after work which puts me into the 4:30 - 6:30 PM time frame.
> The last several times I have voted there were long lines at some precincts
> while at others there was no waiting at all.  When I first came to vote in
> Moscow many years ago we had split polling sites.  I suggest that the time
> has come again to visit this idea.  While the fairgrounds does make a great
> polling site, parking is very limited, and the crowds are larger.  Why not
> split the town up again into separate polling sites to make voting easier
> and less time consuming for everyone?
>
> John