SNOW HILL — A recent change to Worcester County voting districts has the local Elections Board seeking additional polling places.
Worcester’s seven districts saw significant changes over the past few months with the south end of the county especially hit by big alterations. The re-drafting of the districts means that many voters will have new representatives during this election cycle and additional polling places are being considered.
“We went to several areas and made notes of different possible polling places and we want the ones that were more accessible,” said Patti Jackson, director of the elections board.
In each district, the county kept former polling places, adding extra locations in the districts that were stretched through re-districting.
District 1 will retain First Baptist Church in Girdletree and will be adding the Pocomoke City Fire Company and Pocomoke Community Center. District 2 is one of the areas that most “needed additional polling places due to district being ‘stretched’ across the county,” Jackson wrote in a memo to the County Commissioners.
That district will keep Snow Hill Middle School, Newark Fire Company and Stephen Decatur Middle School and will be adding Shiloh United Methodist Church in Pocomoke as well as St. Paul Episcopal Church in Berlin. A number of other sites were considered but rejected, usually due to inaccessibility for disabled voters and limited parking.
District 3 will not be changing and will maintain Ocean City Elementary, Ocean City Lions Club and Berlin Intermediate School.
District 4 is another slice of the south end of the county that was altered significantly during the re-drafting. Snow Hill Elementary School and Showell Fire Department will be kept, while Buckingham Elementary School and Buckingham Presbyterian Church in Berlin will be added.
In District 5, the Ocean Pines Library and Ocean Pines Country Club will be used, while District 6 will keep the Ocean Pines Community Hall, Showell Elementary School and Bishopville Fire Department.
Finally, District 7 will continue to use the Roland E. Powell Convention Center in Ocean City.
By and large, the commission was happy with the sites selected. However, Commissioner Judy Boggs questioned the use of the Ocean Pines Country Club in her district.
“In your minutes and in other information, you have said that a new elevator was installed in the country club,” she told Jackson. “I would like it noted that there is no elevator. What the country club has is a handicap lift.”
The lift “doesn’t accommodate what an elevator accommodates,” according to Boggs, and therefore she worries that voting might be slowed for handicapped residents.
Commissioner Virgil Shockley had no complaints about the polls but wondered if it might be easier to double up on them at certain locations that could reach multiple districts.
“And there’s no way that you can put two polling places in one spot like Newark firehouse?” he asked.
It can’t be done because the districts are also different legislative districts and use different ballet styles, Jackson responded.
Shockley had one other question related to the upcoming November election regarding the county ethics form. All of the current commissioners have had to file the document but so far candidates who have signed up to run against the incumbents have not been required to do so.
“I thought that everybody had to fill it out, win or lose, when you file because it is rather personal,” said Shockley.
That is correct and the Elections Board will get the forms to the candidates immediately, Jackson promised.