ELECTION Reason to reduce precincts: money

Officials will be able to buy voting machines without asking for more money.
TOLEDO (AP) -- There's a simple reason why Ottawa County is cutting the number of precincts by more than a third for the May election -- money.
Elections officials in the county along Lake Erie say they'll save on polling place rental and poll worker salary, and they can now buy new voting machines without asking the county for more money.
The number of election precincts in Ohio has dropped in the last five years by 811 to 11,340 total precincts in last year's statewide election.
Counties in the state are allowed to add or cut precincts as long as there are no more than 1,400 voters in each one.
Many county election boards in the state are working to eliminate precincts or at least considering the move, said Keith Cunningham, president of the Ohio Association of Elections Officials.
"Some of it is being done for economics and some is to streamline the administrative process," he said.
Cunningham, who's also the elections director in Allen County, said the Help America Vote Act that emerged after the disputed 2000 presidential election also led to changes now being seen.
New rules
The federal law put in place new rules on the voting process, including requiring new voting machine systems.
Some Ohio counties with booming populations have added precincts in recent years.
Clermont County near Cincinnati added nine precincts in the last year.
"We have done some consolidation, but we also have had to add some because Clermont County is growing so much," said Kathy Jones, acting director of the county's elections board.
Knox County in north central Ohio has no plans to combine or split precincts, said Rita Yarman, elections director.
"We have a lot of rural areas that would be very difficult," she said.
Plus, such a move would be unpopular.
"People in small communities are very territorial," Yarman said. "You know: 'What's wrong with where I'm voting now?"'