Benton County vote centers OK'd to bump polling places

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials on Thursday approved using vote centers to replace traditional polling places.

"This [ordinance] is part of the plan that must be adopted by the county and filed with the Secretary of State's Office, Mary L. Slinkard, justice of the peace for District 11, said.

Building codes

Benton County’s justices of the peace on Thursday completed the process of adopting the most up-to-date versions of the building codes used by the state. The county has followed the building codes adhered to by the state for several years, according to John Sudduth, general services administrator, and needs to incorporate the changes approved by the state so the codes can be enforced by county building officials.

Source: Staff report

The plan will reduce voting sites from 67 to 46 and end constraints on where voters can cast ballots. Under state law, if a voting center plan is adopted, voters will be able to vote at any of the approved locations on election day and not be required to vote at the polling place assigned to the precinct they live in.

Russ Anzalone, Election Commission chairman, said in conjunction with the early voting period, when the rules are similar and voters can use any early voting site, the vote center plan should make it easier for residents to cast ballots.

Kim Dennison, election coordinator, told the Legislative Committee last week Benton County will get another 54 voting machines from Garland County, which is participating in a pilot program for testing the next generation of voting machines during the March 1 party primary. If the pilot program is a success, Dennison told the committee the state could approve the new machines for use in Arkansas' 75 counties by the middle of next year. The county's equipment, augmented by the additional voting machines and the use of electronic poll books, will make the vote center plan work.

The county is also buying 125 electronic poll books that will be used now and also in conjunction with the new voting machines once they are approved. Using electronic poll books is one of the requirements for the adoption of a vote center plan. The poll books replace paper books with lists of voters names and voter information and will be tied into a live database showing which ballot the voter should receive. Electronic poll books also will show if a person already has voted in an election, reducing the chance of someone casting multiple ballots.

The plan was presented to the Legislative Committee last week and recommended for approval. Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4, said the county and Election Commission will have to work to inform voters of the changes.

"This is something different from what we've done in the past,"Allen said

The panel also approved setting 2015 property tax rates, to be collected in 2016, for all of the taxing entities in the county.

The justices of the peace also authorized the county judge to apply for grants for the Hickory Creek and Pleasure Heights fire departments and the Northeast Benton County Fire Department.

Metro on 11/20/2015

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