[EL] Maricopa County, AZ polling place consolidations

Thu Mar 24 13:05:02 PDT 2016

While the PCEA did recommend vote centers to achieve some efficiencies, the Commission did include this warning in its report (page 36):

“However, vote centers are not appropriate for every jurisdiction, and election authorities need to take a number of key factors into account if and when they transition to them. An insufficient number of vote centers or insufficient staffing and resources could increase, rather than decrease, voter wait times.101 Moreover, if they are inconveniently located, as compared to neighborhood polling places, any turnout benefit may not be realized and indeed, turnout could decrease. Such considerations are especially important for populations that must use public transportation to reach their voting location. The value of vote centers will depend on residential and transportation patterns. The decision on whether to transition to vote centers will often turn on whether more voters can be better served through large, highly-resourced and conveniently located polling locations or whether a larger number of smaller, traditional polling places can better meet voter needs.”

Matthew Weil
Associate Director | Bipartisan Policy Center
(202) 218-6794 | bipartisanpolicy.org<http://bipartisanpolicy.org/>
From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Justin Riemer
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2016 3:44 PM
To: Michael McDonald
Cc: law-election at uci.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] Maricopa County, AZ polling place consolidations

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<mailto:JJustinRiemer at gmail.com>

On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 3:37 PM, Michael McDonald <dr.michael.p.mcdonald at gmail.com<mailto: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<tel:352-273-2371>
www.electproject.org<http://www.electproject.org>
@ElectProject

On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 3:12 PM, David Holtzman, Esq. <david at holtzmanlaw.com<mailto:david at holtzmanlaw.com>> wrote:
Busing, anyone?
  ;-)

-----Original Message-----
From: John Tanner <john.k.tanner at gmail.com<mailto:john.k.tanner at gmail.com>>
To: David Becker <dbecker at pewtrusts.org<mailto:dbecker at pewtrusts.org>>
Cc: "law-election at uci.edu<mailto:law-election at uci.edu>" <law-election at uci.edu<mailto: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<mailto: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<tel:202.552.2136> | dbecker at pewtrusts.org<mailto:dbecker at pewtrusts.org>
www.pewtrusts.org<http://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> [mailto: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<mailto: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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