Re: Primary Season
That’s weird, Jason, because here’s what my instructions say:
Your March 4, 2008 Election Day Polling Locations and Sample Ballot: Republican Party
Macarthur High School - 3700 N Macarthur Blvd, Irving, 75062
Sample Ballot
Democratic Party
John J Brandenburg Elem School - 2800 Hillcrest Dr, Irving, 75062
I see that your polling places are the same, but education reporter Curtis Ippolito has two different polling places, too, as does PH reporter Austin Kilgore. Perhaps republicans and democrats cast votes at the same polling places with early voting, but it’s different with typical primary voting? Maybe it depends on the precinct — isn’t that strange? I still want to get to the bottom of this, because it seems like a waste.
I voted early at the Records Building downtown, and it sponsored both the Republican and Democratic primaries. I don’t suppose that the primaries have to be in same location, but I think they usually are.
What I’ve always found odd is when elections are held in churches. Government buildings make more sense.
If you have any questions about your polling location, the dallas county elections website is http://www.dalcoelections.org
Now to answer questions posed by readers:
1. My experience in early voting is that Dems and Reps vote at the same location.
2. Not always in primaries do Dems and Reps. vote in the same place. I’ve had it where they voted in the same building but had different entrances and voted in separate rooms yet under the same roof.
3. Charles remarked about churches. Election Boards make an effort to find a location within a precinct such as a govt. bldg but when not available churches, hotels even laundrymats have been put into service.
Bruce Sherbet is the elections administrator and of all the places I have worked on campaigns, he and his organization do a fantastic job, but they are not perfect.
Once we noticed a polling location over 10 miles outside the district boundary. we brought it to his attention and they found a hotel in the district for voters and published a correction in the newspaper. the interesting thing is that our opponent had a campaign sign and volunteers at the polling place outside of the district, we did not. btw, we won going away.
see you on the campaign trail…
Schools and churches serve as voting stations because they are public and usually neutral locations with a lot of extra space (i.e. school auditoriums, or, as in my old neighborhood, church hallways) that are not heavily utilized during the workday or in the evening. There are also many more churches and schools in the area than government buildings, making it easier for voters to find a polling station nearby.
Because each party is responsible for its own primaries (and as I understand it, then contracts with Dalco Elections to handle some of the tasks), it may be that each party combines polling places according to the likely turnout.
That is, a heavily Dem area may have a separate polling place for each precinct, to handle the number of people efficiently, but the GOP in the same area may combine several precincts in one polling place, since they don’t expect a great number of people — election judges and clerks are always in short supply. The opposite would be true in heavily GOP areas of town — if there are any this year.