The Chatham County Democratic Party strongly supports the position of the Savannah City Council and the Chatham County Commission that the Elections Board should postpone any closing of existing polling places until the 2010 census.
The precinct consolidations that the Elections Board is proposing will effectively disenfranchise many black and elderly voters in 2008. Many people will not know where they are supposed to vote, and lines will be longer at already crowded polling places.
Working people cannot take enough time off work to stand in long lines. Many elderly people are not capable of standing for long periods. It should be the job of the Elections Board to ensure that as many citizens as possible vote, not to make voting as difficult as possible.
Our turnout in elections is the lowest of any major democracy. More than 80% of the French voted in their recent election. We are lucky if we turn out 25% of registered voters.
Georgia has a long history of disenfranchising voters. Let us not add to this disgraceful chapter in our history.
Make a few minor changes now, if you like. No one is going to protest the closing of Lazaretto Boat Club. I voted there for years. It’s a delightful polling place, but it is a very small precinct, it is not handicapped accessible and everyone in the neighborhood has a car. Close it be all means, but leave the wholesale reshuffling until after the census.
—Karen Arms
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