Madison Shumway
Life Editor
Come voting season this year, Bannock County might have 32 percent fewer polling places—and two ISU students are trying to prevent that.
County Commissioner Evan Frasure has proposed consolidating voting precincts in the county, eliminating 16 of 50 existing precincts, with estimated savings in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Proponents of the change say that eliminating polling places used by, in some cases, as few as 300 people is worth the savings potential. But the proposal’s opponents say that’s voter suppression, and $10,000 is a low price to pay for voting accessibility.
“Our government is based on the need for citizen participation,” said Chris Bailey, ISU political science student and Law Club president. “…Anything that could hinder that needs to be examined carefully. In this case, saving a mere $10,000 isn’t worth losing accessibility to polling stations and denying citizens of their basic constitutional right.”
Bailey, along with fellow student and Law Club member Annie Harrison, is heading an initiative to combat the proposed changes. The two students have created an online petition that highlights their opposition to the precinct consolidation measures.
The students, and the petitioners behind them, firstly take issue with the county’s goal of saving money.
Some precincts are home to only a few hundred voters but still employ about five staff members per polling location. According to Frasure, staffing polling places and training staff costs tens of thousands of dollars per voting season, so reducing the number of polling places will save the county significantly.
However, opponents doubt the county’s actual savings will be so high.
Because Bannock County must notify voters of the new precinct boundary lines and of their new polling locations, the changes won’t result in savings until the following election, Bailey said. Petitioners pin the cost of implementation at over $20,000.
Opponents also question motives more political than financial. They claim the changes may affect how long it takes to vote and how accessible polling places are to the elderly and poor in particular.
But Frasure says eliminating precincts is more about making the county’s voter system less complicated.
“We want to encourage people to vote by making things much less confusing,” he told the Idaho State Journal.
He says boundary lines will correspond to physical features like streets or rivers, simplifying precincts.
Changing voting boundaries most always brings suspicions of gerrymandering, though, and this proposal is no different.
Bailey and Harrison worry about the issue of proximity to polling places, concerned that elderly voters or voters in poverty may not have access to their polling place if it’s not in walking distance. They also worry about voters with demanding job obligations who may face long lines at peak voting hours and miss the chance to vote.
“One of most precious rights is to vote and when suppression or gerrymandering is obvious it usually affects a certain class of people denying them the equal rights they should hold,” Harrison said. “The only way to stand is united and voting is the most effective way of voicing your opinion. We need to respect the process and not exclude people for political gain.”
