Trumbull board OKs voting-precincts plan

By Ed Runyan

The board will look at consolidating precincts in Warren.

WARREN — There will be 23 fewer voting precincts in Trumbull County for the May 5 primary because of a precinct consolidation plan finalized by the county elections board.

Board members approved the elimination of 24 precincts at a meeting in February, but it put one back in Mesopotamia Township on Tuesday. The number of precincts now drops from 273 to 250.

Ron Knight, a Republican board member, said additional consolidations are likely to occur before the November general election, mostly in the city of Warren.

The main reason for the consolidations is to save money, Knight said. Knight has championed the cause of precinct reduction since he became a board member in 2006.

One precinct each was eliminated in the cities of Niles, Girard and Hubbard, and four were eliminated in Brookfield, one in Champion, one in Fowler, one in Hartford, two in Howland, two in Hubbard Township, one in Kinsman, five in Liberty, one in Southington and two in Weathersfield.

Precincts A and B in Mesopotamia were going to be combined, but the idea was reversed when officials realized that voters in the same precinct would be voting for two different state representatives, which would have caused confusion, said Kelly Pallante, elections board director.

In every case of precincts elimination, two precincts were combined into one, Pallante said.

In some cases, voters will have to begin voting at a new location, and in other cases, they will just have a new precinct name but not a new location, Pallante said.

Postcards will be mailed within the next two to three weeks notifying affected voters, Pallante said.

In January, Knight proposed eliminating 67 precincts, and fellow elections board members analyzed some of them in depth, finally agreeing on 24.

Elections board members agreed to analyze some of Knight’s other suggestions after the primary so the consolidations can take effect for the general election in November. Among those areas was Warren.

The city has the potential for as many as 25 fewer voting precincts, Knight said, because the city has some of the smallest precincts in the county based on the number of registered voters in each precinct.

Pallante and Knight have estimated that each precinct that is eliminated will save around $500 per precinct in salary and training per election, or around $11,500 in 2009. Four paid workers staff each precinct.

In other business, the board will meet at 3 p.m. Thursday to hear a protest of the candidacy of Marianne Hallapy, who turned in petitions to run for 1st Ward council member in Hubbard.

The protest was filed by Bonnie Viele, the incumbent council candidate, who questions “ditto” marks and party affiliation of certain signers of Hallapy’s petitions. Both women are Democrats.

runyan@vindy.com