City could lose precinct

Staff Report

Elmore County Probate Judge John Enslen issued an analysis of the 2016 general election citing voter turnout comparisons and precincts, including an evaluation of the Jordanville district in Tallassee.

"The precinct casting the smallest number of votes was the God's Congregational Church precinct which has only 395 registered voters," Enslen posted on Facebook. "I previously petitioned the county commission, unsuccessfully, to save the taxpayers' money by combining God's Congregation Church precinct with the nearby Tallaweka Baptist Church precinct.

"The cost of staffing the very small God's Congregation Church precinct with a full complement of poll workers and a separate set of boxed materials makes for inefficiency and unnecssary expense. In former times, the twoo precints were combined into one. Under the law, one precinct can have as many as 2,400 voters using one voting macine."

207 voted at God's Congregation for the November presidential election. There were 1,564 who voted at Tallaweka.

"In the near future, I hope to make a request to the new county commission to reconsider the matter which would save the general fund some money," Enslen added. Based on Restrictive laws, there is only a small window of opportunity in which a county commission may change a voting precinct."

Former Tallassee city councilman Charles Blalock, who votes in Jordanville, gave his thoughts on the idea of eliminating the precint.

"I'm opposed to it," Blalock said. "I believe in easy access to the polls. When I think of how hard it was to become a registerd voter, now it seems someone is throwing up a block. I believe it's a political ploy. When people are comfortable, they're more apt to be involved. That box is a comfort zone for a lot of folks.

"I don't know what that man down in Wetumpka's reasoning behind this is, but he's going to have a hell of a fight on his hands if he tries to move that box out of Jordanville."

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