In Plymouth, while it might make sense on paper, given the statistics, the vote at the Select Board meeting last week, on February 4th, to go from 14 to 4 voting locations, did not sit well with the public. The recommendation to consolidate polling locations was based on Town Clerk Kelly McElreath’s presentation at that Select Board meeting. This illustrated a change in voting patterns, showing that more than 50% of voters chose to vote early or by mail in 2024. So last week the Board voted 3 to 2 to reduce polling locations to 4. But at the Select Board meeting this week, on the 11th, the Board amended that vote.
WATD’s Bobbi Clark has more…
Vice Chair of the Select Board Kevin Canty made the motion to amend:
“The proposal last week did not incorporate a polling location in the southwest portion of town. The new vote for 5 locations does include South Elementary which is in the southwest portion of town.”
The reduction in polling locations has a cost saving benefit:
“So, per election it would save an estimated sixty-seven hundred dollars, thereabouts in current dollars. If you look at last year in 2024, we had five elections. So that would save sixty-seven hundred dollars five separate times.”
Canty explains why the vote could be amended:
“But because the vote we took last week had not taken operative effect we could that vote procedurally.”
In Plymouth, Bobbi Clark, WATD News.