On November 21st the Athens Board of Elections met to discuss the implementation of the judicial ruling regarding early voting on Saturday for the Senate Run-Off December 6th. According to the discussion the Elections office on Washington Street must be open and staffed during the operation of any polling place so that office will be open on November 26th however, that is also a game day and much discussion involved how difficult it would be for anyone to get through game day traffic in order to vote at that location.
To address this difficulty for Saturday voters three members of the board voted to open only the Eastside Miriam Moore polling place to accommodate east side voters. One of the board members made the case that the downtown office would be too difficult for the East side voters hence Miriam Moore.
What about West Athens voters? Did the board really think it would be easier for West Athens voters to get to the downtown location on a game day to vote? Did they think only East side voters would be interested in early voting on a Saturday? If they could only staff one polling place for the Saturday voting why did they not choose a central location equally accessible to both East side and West side voters?
Statistics from the Board of Elections Office indicate the Miriam Moore location as one of the lowest volume polling places and yet the the board voted 3 to 2 to accommodate East Side voters while while making no accomodation for West Athens Saturday voters.
The Board's selection of the East side location as the only Saturday voting site outside of downtown on a game day effectively excludes the rest of Athens voters whom unless I am mistaken this board is supposed to represent.
Donna Carter
Athens