02/02/12  On Tuesday, January 31, the Marshall County Election Board finally hammered out the final list of proposed polling sites for the upcoming primary and general elections for 2012.  Although most of the sites had been verified several weeks ago, there had been some lingering concerns over sites in North Township and Union Township.

Marshall County Clerk/ Election Board Secretary Julie Fox, along with Commissioners Kevin Overmyer and Jack Roose toured the LaPaz Community Building. There had been some concerns over the condition of the parking lot. All of the concerns have now been addressed and needed repairs to the facility are in the works. Election Board members Roger Wise and Nelson Chipman along with Fox, toured the Culver Library to ensure that there was sufficient room for machines, parking access, and adequate room for positioning machines away from windows. Light streaming in from windows makes the voting machine screens difficult to read.

Board members will be presenting their final list to the Marshall County Commissioners on February 6 at 8:45 a.m.. The commissioners hold the ultimate reasonability for the sites.

Those being proposed include: Triton High School. Marshall County Building, Plymouth Fire Station, Webster Recreation Center, Knights of Columbus, Plymouth Baptist Church, REMC Auditorium, Lake of the Woods Clubhouse, Bremen Missionary Church, Bremen High School, Methodist Church (Green Township), LaPaz Community Building, Tyner Fire Station, Tippecanoe Community Building, Culver Library, and Pretty Lake Fellowship Hall.

The voting site for some county residents will be changed due to redistricting and combining of some precincts.

Shelly Brown of Voter Registration said cards will be sent to all registered voters informing them of the place where they can vote.

Identifying the number of workers and number of voting machines needed at each polling site has been a topic of discussion for the past several meetings. Wise produced a spreadsheet for consideration and the final numbers are almost determined.  As it stands now, 66 of the 83 voting machines owned by the county will have to be programmed, delivered and set up for the primary.

Wise said, “We will not need as many machines in the primary.” But in looking forward to the November General Election, Wise said,”We’ll probably find out in the primary how tough it’s going to be.”

Chipman shared the redistricting map that will be presented to the Plymouth Common Council for approval.  He indicated that if the map being considered was finalized, there would be only two changes. The Common Council could vote on the redistricting at the second meeting in February, according to Chipman. Once the redistricting is approved, city officials will then have to attend to any needed changes in precincts. Redistricting is based on population and precincts are based on registered voters.

Carol Anders Correspondent