{"id":7684,"date":"2005-01-18T09:18:55","date_gmt":"2005-01-18T16:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/01\/18\/voting-solutions.html"},"modified":"2005-01-18T09:18:55","modified_gmt":"2005-01-18T16:18:55","slug":"voting_solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/01\/18\/voting_solution.html","title":{"rendered":"Voting solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

After writing about the prospect of consolidating\/centralizing polling places<\/a> as a way to improve voting reliability, it turns out that’s actually being considered<\/a>. Denver, Adams, and Broomfield counties are all looking at putting such systems in place this year, reducing dozens of precinct polling places into more consolidated “voting centers.”<\/p>\n

Why the contemplated shift? Election officials say it is costly to maintain a traditional system of precinct polling places and increasingly difficult to find election judges, too. So it’s only natural that officials take a leaf from corporate America’s playbook and consider merging or eliminating polling outlets in favor of a few mega-centers open to all voters no matter where they reside in the county.<\/p>\n

Moreover, as Denver election commissioner Sandy Adams argues, the increasing scrutiny given voting procedures and the emergence of “provisional ballots” are two more reasons to consolidate voting. Fewer centers mean fewer but better-trained workers and thus fewer mistakes. Meanwhile, voters who wandered into a polling place outside their neighborhood would no longer be required to cast a provisional ballot.<\/p>\n

The article notes some potential problems, though. The biggest is that if it’s less convenient to vote (i.e., if it means traveling out of one’s way, looking around for parking, waiting in longer lines), fewer people may do so. Alternately, people may use “early voting” or absentee voting alternatives.<\/p>\n

Larimer Co. evidently did the voting center thing during the November election, though, with some success:<\/p>\n

The clerk and recorder of Larimer County, which switched from 143 precincts to 31 voting centers for November’s election, has been telling anyone who cares to listen that the centers are just about the best thing to happen to America since the introduction of the mini-iPod. And Scott Doyle is correct that Larimer voters turned out in impressive numbers for the recent election, just as they did elsewhere on the Front Range, in what appears to have been a well-run change in voting procedures.<\/p>\n

Larimer set it up so that it wasn’t merely a matter of multiple precincts being set up in fewer locations, but allows folks from any precinct to vote in any voting center. That removed some of the inconvenience factor as far as travel goes. Whether something similar would work elsewhere, or in a non-“hot” election is another matter, but I think, in the long run, it makes the most sense.<\/p>\n

As long as the parking is okay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After writing about the prospect of consolidating\/centralizing polling places as a way to improve voting reliability, it turns out that’s actually being considered. Denver, Adams, and Broomfield counties are all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_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}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7035,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/11\/09\/election_reform.html","url_meta":{"origin":7684,"position":0},"title":"Election reform","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 9-Nov-04 3:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The NY Times weighs in editorially on election reform goals. And, by and large, they're things I can support: It's patently obvious that presidential elections, at least, should be conducted...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39497,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/01\/just-in-case-there-was-any-doubt-about-polling-place-reform.html","url_meta":{"origin":7684,"position":1},"title":"Just in case there was any doubt about polling place reform","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 1-Nov-13 11:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Why has the GOP been so gung-ho about curbing early voting and extended voting hours? Is it to save costs and somehow avoid fraud? \u00a0Nah. It's to reduce voting by Democrats. Don't believe me? Ask some folks who used to be in the GOP power structure, but now aren't. Former\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30673,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/18\/theres-more-than-one-way-to-suppress-a-voter.html","url_meta":{"origin":7684,"position":2},"title":"There's more than one way to suppress a voter","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 18-Oct-12 9:07am","format":false,"excerpt":"Dragged kicking and screaming by two federal court decisions (and a rejection from SCOTUS) to reinstate rull early voting for all voters, Ohio GOP Secretary of State John Husted is playing around with the hours of early voting centers to make it more difficult to find out when voting is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131420,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/04\/the-myth-of-voter-fraud.html","url_meta":{"origin":7684,"position":3},"title":"The myth of voter fraud","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 4-Sep-16 5:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been said many, many times before, but here's a nice summary white paper from the Brennan Center for Justice that looks at all the reviews of voter fraud -- someone who is not eligible to vote voting, or impersonating an eligible voter -- show it to be exceedingly rare,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/toles_on_voting.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/toles_on_voting.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/toles_on_voting.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":31241,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/06\/john-husted-tries-to-become-the-new-katherine-harris.html","url_meta":{"origin":7684,"position":4},"title":"John Husted tries to become the new Katherine Harris","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Nov-12 10:51am","format":false,"excerpt":"Harris was the Republican\u00a0Secretary of State for Florida who played such a charming role in the 2000 recount brouhaha.Husted is the Republican Secretary of State for Ohio who's played such a charming role in the 2012 election to skew and\/or reduce early voting, mess around with voting rolls and provisional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19086,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/11\/02\/tweets-from-2010-11-02.html","url_meta":{"origin":7684,"position":5},"title":"Tweets from 2010-11-02","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Nov-10 11:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, folks, VOTE. Even if we disagree, I want you voting, tho even more if we agree. Consider who you're voting for - or against. But vote. # I have my ballot ready to drop off on the way home. Apprehensive about the election outcomes, but hoping for the best.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}