SOME CALHOUN VOTERS UPSET OVER NEW POLLING PLACES - Shifting Voters Around Districts

(09/21/2010)
Some Calhoun voters are still upset following the special primary election because they had been directed to go to a newly designated voting location.

Calhoun Clerk Kirby said with new E-911 addressing being issued to all county residents, the placing of voters in voting districts is done by a computer program, causing some voters to be reassigned to a new polling place.

Kirby said voting districts change with population shifting within the county, and the districts require equalization.

More shifting of voting districts will happen after the 2010 census is released.

Some residents in the greater Millstone area had to go to Grantsville, while others in the Orma area had to go to Arnoldsburg.

"I don't blame them for being upset," said Kirby, "but it's the law, and we couldn't ignore it."

Kirby said many of the voters who have been upset have voted all their life in a neighborhood precinct.

Voters in Washington and Lee District have been affected the most, because those districts have been gaining in population.