Trim Trumbull precincts now

Trim Trumbull precincts now

It’s been more than five years since former Trumbull County Board of Elections member Ron Knight proposed trimming the number of voting precincts in the county from 274 to 135, and it finally looks like the board is ready to get close to Knight’s target.

In the meantime, the board has made some incremental reductions; the county now has 238 precincts. But by not pursuing the Knight plan, the board missed the chance to save nearly $1 million over the last nine elections.

Opponents, however, have always claimed that the time for anything but a modest trimming of precincts wasn’t right. Democrat Chris Michelakis, board chairman, is playing that card again, pointing to the upcoming 2012 presidential election. He even suggests that Republicans on the board are attempting to reduce precincts as a way of suppressing a Democratic vote for President Barack Obama’s re-election.

The counter to that would be that Democrats are more interested in pumping up the number of precincts because each has a committeeman, and they are the party’s worker bees. Democrats have little trouble finding committeemen for all precincts, while the Republican Party struggles to fill fewer than half the openings.

Adjusting to change

With early voting now firmly in place, there is no reason to think the 2012 election cannot be efficiently handled with far fewer precincts. And certainly county taxpayers are not obliged to subsidize an artificially high number of precincts to the benefit of one party over the other.

The time for Trumbull County to trim its precincts is now, during an off-year election. That provides adequate time to adjust to whatever challenges 2012 might hold.

The reduction suggested by Republican board member Craig Bonar would result in 146 precincts — still more than Knight advocated — but with the promise of saving as much as $144,000 per year. Knight has been replaced by Kathi Creed, who says she supports the proposal.

In a nonpartisan world, the board’s May 2 vote on the proposal would be unanimous. Predictions of election day dysfunction are mere speculation; the monetary savings are concrete.