Ward 4 polling location changes

Registered voters in Mooresville’s Ward 4 received good news or bad news this week, depending on where they live.

The polling place for Ward 4, formally known as Coddle Creek Precinct 4, is changing from its long-time home at the Mooresville Golf Course to Peninsula Baptist Church, across from Brawley Middle School.

Voters who live on the western end of the elongated Ward 4, nearer Lake Norman, will enjoy a shorter drive to cast their ballots.

Those closer to downtown Mooresville will now have to fight Brawley School Road traffic on Election Day.

And many of the latter are none too happy about it. Angry calls began flowing into the Iredell County Elections Office Friday as registered voters began receiving mailings informing them of the site switch.

Why the change?

The fast-growing Ward 4 has outgrown the golf course clubhouse as a voting location. And the building doesn’t meet the state’s voting requirements for handicap accessibility, said County Elections Supervisor Becky Galliher.

“That precinct just has too many voters now for the space at the golf course,” she said. “We always get so many complaints from voters and candidates that there isn’t enough parking and that the room is too small.”

Ward 4 has grown to 4,846 registered voters, Galliher said, creating particularly bad problems at the golf course during presidential election years.

She said elections officials didn’t want to relocate the polling place onto the Brawley peninsula if they could avoid it, but a search for an acceptable new home closer to the golf course came up dry.

“We have looked and looked, but there are absolutely no public or private buildings that meet our requirements, and who would give us permission, other than the (Peninsula) church,” Galliher said.

She said she fully realizes the inconvenience that the new site will cause some voters.

“I’m getting plenty of complaints about moving to Peninsula Baptist, and I’m sorry and I sympathize,” she said. “But we absolutely had no other options. We didn’t just decide to put it on Brawley School Road to torment you.

“We hate having to leave the golf course because the (employees) there were always so nice and gracious.”

On the upside, Ward 4 will not have an October primary, so those voters won’t have to deal with the Brawley School Road traffic until the November general election.

And, Galliher pointed out, there are ways to avoid the traffic and crowds altogether: One-stop early voting, and voting by mail.

Early voting for voters in non-primary precincts will run from Oct. 18 through Nov. 3, at the Elections Office in Statesville.

Call (704) 878-3140 for details.

To obtain a ballot by mail, send a written request to the Iredell County Elections Office at 203 Stockton St., Statesville, 28677.

Mooresville’s Ward 4 isn’t the only South Iredell precinct to change locations for 2007.

The Davidson 1B precinct has moved its polling place from Lake Norman Elementary School to the Lake Norman Volunteer Fire Department, Galliher said.

The change should ease traffic problems during voting times, she said.

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Posted on 09/21/07 at 08:52 AM
Mooresville •Town Council •Ward 4 • (0) Comments

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