Friday, July 14, 2023–8:55 a.m.
-Ethan Garrett, WRGA News-
The Floyd County Board of Elections held the final public hearing related to a new voting precinct map Thursday.
Prior to opening the floor up for public comment, members of the board explained the reason for the changes that would merge some precincts, making 19 instead of the current 25.
Primarily, there are multiple precincts sharing the same voting location.
“For example, Mt. Alto North and Garden Lakes were both voting at the Anthony Recreation Center,” said elections board chair Jerry Lee. “State law requires that a voting precinct, which is a geographic area, has a unique voting location within the confines of that precinct. One of the things we are going to do as part of this project is to address those issues, correct those issues and put us in compliance with state law.”
There are also areas like the Mt. Berry/Stonebridge area, which are in the City Limits. Voters were actually driving by a voting location at Glenwood to go to the Rome Civic Center in order to cast their ballots.
Four people spoke during the public hearing.
There was concern regarding whether the poll locations would be able to handle the flow of voters and if there would be enough poll workers to handle the changes.
Others were concerned that voters would not know where to go after the changes go into effect, and also if the locations would be accessible for wheelchairs and disabled individuals.
Changes to the map would include:
Armuchee and Texas Valley would be combined into one precinct.
Vann’s Valley and Barkers would be combined, as would Riverside and North Rome.
Mount Alto South and Alto Park would be combined with others merging into the South Rome precinct.
The West Lindale and East Lindale precincts would be combined with a portion of East Lindale merging with the East Rome precinct.
Also, voters in the Berry Forrest area would be included in the Glenwood precinct.
Portions of Mount Alto North would be merged with Town Rome and others would merge into the Garden Lakes precinct.
