[EL] Maricopa County, AZ polling place consolidations

Thu Mar 24 12:44:12 PDT 2016

Some of you may remember RNLA did a paper responding to some of the PCEA
recommendations and we warned about this exact issue. While not opposing
vote centers outright, RNLA warned about consolidating too many people in
one place. If you are interested see pages 21+ here
<http://www.rnla.org/pecaresponse.pdf>. Relevant excerpts:

"A related contributor to polling place problems, particularly lines, is
the co-location of multiple precincts at one polling place or facility.
While this is a popular trend, RNLA cautions against stacking too many
voters into one physical location which may have the practical effect of
creating one giant, unmanageable precinct on Election Day."
And:
"RNLA does not formally oppose co-location of precincts in all instances;
however, we believe that they should be avoided whenever possible in favor
of unique physical polling places for each precinct. This approach does
divert somewhat from PCEA’s recommendation that states establish vote
centers to consolidate precincts into vote centers when possible. However,
we believe that the lessons learned from those places with the very longest
lines point to the need for smaller precincts, not larger, super-sized
ones."

J Justin Riemer
772-559-1567
JJustinRiemer at gmail.com

On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 3:37 PM, Michael McDonald <
dr.michael.p.mcdonald at gmail.com> wrote:

> Speaking narrowly on the VRA Section 5 issue, the reports are that some
> predominantly Latino communities had no polling location. If Section 5 had
> been in effect, Maricopa County would have had to provide evidence that
> closing polling locations in minority communities would have no effect on
> their turnout, even if there were vote centers elsewhere.
>
>
>
> http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/elviadiaz/2016/03/22/maricopa-county-election-officials-writing-off-voters-you-bet/82145554/
>
>
> ============
> Dr. Michael P. McDonald
> Associate Professor, University of Florida
> 352-273-2371
> www.electproject.org
> @ElectProject
>
> On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 3:12 PM, David Holtzman, Esq. <
> david at holtzmanlaw.com> wrote:
>
>> Busing, anyone?
>>   ;-)
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: John Tanner <john.k.tanner at gmail.com>
>> To: David Becker <dbecker at pewtrusts.org>
>> Cc: "law-election at uci.edu" <law-election at uci.edu>
>> Sent: Thu, 24 Mar 2016 10:49
>> Subject: Re: [EL] Maricopa County, AZ polling place consolidations
>>
>> Ah!  Important point!
>>
>> Vote centers typically require longer for each person to cast a ballot,
>> at least when there is more than one office on the ballot, and hence
>> multiple ballot styles.   Relative mobility among white vs minority voters
>> could lead to discrimination if some sites were known to have significantly
>> shorter lines.
>>
>> On Mar 24, 2016, at 1:12 PM, David Becker <dbecker at pewtrusts.org> wrote:
>>
>> Without expressing any opinion on what occurred in Maricopa County this
>> week, or whether the change would have been subject to a Section 5
>> objection pre-Shelby, it’s important to note that this was not a “reduction
>> in the number of polling places,” or “polling place consolidation,” per se,
>> but rather a switch from single-polling-place precincts to vote centers,
>> where any voter countywide could cast a ballot. Thus, while the overall
>> number of voting locations was reduced, the number of locations where each
>> voter could cast a ballot was increased, as each could vote at any vote
>> center in the county.
>>
>>
>> <image001.png>
>> *David J. Becker*
>> Director, Election Initiatives
>> The Pew Charitable Trusts
>> 901 E St NW, 10th Floor | Washington, DC 20004
>> p: 202.552.2136 | dbecker at pewtrusts.org
>> www.pewtrusts.org
>>
>> *Sign up
>> <http://outreach.pewtrusts.org/ElectionInitiativesRegistration> for our
>> monthly newsletter to receive the latest election updates.*
>>
>>
>> *From:* law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [
>> mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu
>> <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu>] *On Behalf Of *John
>> Tanner
>> *Sent:* Thursday, March 24, 2016 12:29 PM
>> *To:* Rick Hasen
>> *Cc:* law-election at uci.edu
>> *Subject:* [EL] Maricopa County, AZ polling place consolidations
>>
>> For those who are interested in the basis for Section 5 objections to the
>> reduction in the number of polling places, pdfs of all objection letters
>> are now on line at
>> https://www.justice.gov/crt/section-5-objection-letters
>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.justice.gov_crt_section-2D5-2Dobjection-2Dletters&d=CwMFAg&c=2qwu4RrWzdlNOcmb_drAcw&r=rN5rVT8Yp2mR5l9MiFbXS7Jfj1A01BLBW2RNVMqASpg&m=3kKvuOwCFKSm7M6DBP-cMtfbNsClIZugc2MTiygtmXA&s=0iawB_pikWUz5nJWYfK2TdelyUfQjlVJiTnqs6KX0HQ&e=>
>> Note that the large majority of polling place objections were to the
>> selection of an inconvenient site rather than the consolidation of
>> precincts.  I went through quickly (using command/control-f) and found 11.
>> One objection, the most recent, is available in html at
>> https://www.justice.gov/crt/voting-determination-letter-35
>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.justice.gov_crt_voting-2Ddetermination-2Dletter-2D35&d=CwMFAg&c=2qwu4RrWzdlNOcmb_drAcw&r=rN5rVT8Yp2mR5l9MiFbXS7Jfj1A01BLBW2RNVMqASpg&m=3kKvuOwCFKSm7M6DBP-cMtfbNsClIZugc2MTiygtmXA&s=IMAYs-xzViIZAAFezAxWI9OSsysYRliUELxIZ6JNxsw&e=>.
>> There was a follow-up enforcement action, details of which are at
>> https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/crt/legacy/2010/12/15/nharrismont_comp.pdf
>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.justice.gov_sites_default_files_crt_legacy_2010_12_15_nharrismont-5Fcomp.pdf&d=CwMFAg&c=2qwu4RrWzdlNOcmb_drAcw&r=rN5rVT8Yp2mR5l9MiFbXS7Jfj1A01BLBW2RNVMqASpg&m=3kKvuOwCFKSm7M6DBP-cMtfbNsClIZugc2MTiygtmXA&s=3DKSx5luR2BuamqYP2VaWDPpCcWD9JN96-lrYVBNZCg&e=>
>>  and https://www.justice.gov/crt/judgment-and-order
>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.justice.gov_crt_judgment-2Dand-2Dorder&d=CwMFAg&c=2qwu4RrWzdlNOcmb_drAcw&r=rN5rVT8Yp2mR5l9MiFbXS7Jfj1A01BLBW2RNVMqASpg&m=3kKvuOwCFKSm7M6DBP-cMtfbNsClIZugc2MTiygtmXA&s=ip0dEui5rx69QgynUnvm8lLzsSKmmn4IFdv-ThswH_E&e=>
>>
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