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Election officials in Licking County, OH, are reducing the number of precincts and polling places for the November 2013 general election and will use the savings to fund technology upgrades, which they hope will reduce voters’ wait times.
The Board of Elections plans to reduce the number of precincts in the county from 125 to 95, consolidating 47 polling locations into 25. The estimated savings are about $20,000—$15,000 in reduced poll worker costs and $5,000 for costs to deliver voting equipment.
According to election officials, these savings will help pay for new bar code readers and printers for electronic poll books, which are intended, in part, to reduce check-in time at polling places. In November 2012, some Licking County voters waited three hours at the polls.
More wait-time data are coming soon from Pew’s election initiatives team.
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