After hearing from Lawton Sack, who is the newest member of the Bulloch County Board of Elections and Registration and also chair of the county Republican Party, Statesboro City Council by a 3-2 vote Tuesday evening postponed its decision on a proposal to relocate the Statesboro One city voting place to Luetta Moore Park.
This follows a Bulloch County Schools staff notification to county election officials after last November's election that the William James Educational Complex — home to the Board of Education central offices as well as the Transitions Learning Center alternative school and other classroom programs — would no longer be available for use as a voting site because of concerns for student safety. The cafeteria of the old school on Williams Road has served a voting precinct, called simply the Statesboro precinct, for more than 20 years in county, state and federal elections. It has also long served as the voting place for one of the two precincts for Statesboro's city elections.
After publishing notices in the Statesboro Herald on March 30 and April 6 of a proposal to move the Statesboro One city polling place to the community building at Luetta Moore Park on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, city officials held a public hearing as part of the Tuesday evening, April 18, City Council meeting.
The two citizens who spoke — on different sides — when Mayor Pro Tem Shari Barr asked for public comments on the issue were Sack, who identified himself as a Board of Elections member but didn't mention his Republican Party role, and Len Fatica, who is chair of the Bulloch County Democratic Committee but didn't mention that, either.
"At our meeting last Monday, the Board of Elections made the decision to table this vote so that we can have time to make sure that this is the best location for this permanent change for the voting precinct," Sack said. "I have spent the last week looking at various locations, having conversations with the Board of Education, (Schools Superintendent) Charles Wilson, working with the county, also having discussions with them."
He said he was there to "ask for the City Council to do the same," by tabling a decision for one month.
Separate decisions
In fact, the city government and the county Board of Elections had been at different points in the process in their separate decisions about relocating the voting site. Geographically distinct but overlapping city and county voting precincts have shared the old school cafeteria as their polling place.
The county elections board had not yet advertised a proposed site, so what the three-member board postponed at its April 10 meeting was a decision to do that. But the city had formally proposed the Luetta Moore Park building, actually named the Jones-Love Cultural Center, as the city elections site for the Statesboro One precinct. The city's other precinct, Statesboro Two, votes at Pittman Park United Methodist Church and would remain unchanged.
The city's decision would have more immediate effect, since 2023, being odd-numbered, is a municipal election year, with three council seats up for election Nov. 7. But no regular county, state or federal elections are scheduled until 2024.
Still, Sack said the county board wants to work with the city to find "a joint location" for the voting place.
"We have no desire for the city to vote in one location and the county to vote in another," he said.
The idea is to avoid confusing voters by keeping one voting place for both the city precinct and the county precinct previously served by the old school gym, he said.
Sack's appointment, by the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners, to the Board of Elections and Registration took effect April 1. Previous election board chairman Hadley Campbell had resigned from the board effective March 31.
At the April 10 meeting, Sack's first, the board confirmed Theresa Jackson, who has been serving on the board since its creation, as the new chair, and Jeff Yawn, a former Statesboro City Council member who has served one year on the board, as vice chair, with Sack becoming secretary.
Fatica's position
Following Sack at the City Council's public microphone, Fatica said he had been "working with the election office here as well as the mayor" out of concern that the move to Luetta Moore Park might not take place.
"It has got plenty of parking. It is handicapped accessible," Fatica said. "Disability for voters in that area is a big thing."
He observed that "one gentleman" who "rides his wheelchair" with a little flag on it is often seen in the area.
"He does not miss a vote, and if they move that to one of the other proposed areas, you're taking away the voting aspect of a lot of disabled people," Fatica said.
He urged the council to go ahead and vote on its resolution for the Luetta Moore site.
District 1 Councilman Phil Boyum asked what other locations were being considered.
Barr noted that "initially there was discussion about the Belle House, "but then the city kind of rejected that for access." The Belle House is a privately owned event venue just inside the city limits on Westside Road.
Other possibilities
Other suggested sites Bulloch County Election Supervisor Shontay Jones listed in a February email to city and county officials included the Original First African Baptist Church, also on Westside Road but outside the city limits, and the Statesboro Municipal Court Complex, 22 W. Grady St.
The Municipal Court building could still be considered, according to Sack, who said it is "in walking distance of a heavily populated area."
"We are also looking at the Bulloch County commissioners' office" (on North Main Street), he said, noting that the meeting room is being expanded.
Sack reported he met April 17 with Superintendent Wilson and Schools Safety Director Todd Mashburn, and said they "are also taking a look at the gym at the William James Complex," and at the old Julia P. Bryant School site.
District 3 Councilwoman Venus Mack asked what was wrong with the Luetta Moore Park location.
"The issue is that we've got 7,000 voters in the county," Sack said, meaning in the Statesboro precinct alone. "It is fine for the city elections, but with next year being the presidential election and the increase of people moving into Bulloch County and Statesboro precinct, with this being a permanent change. … We just have concerns that we're going to be able to get at least 100 voters into that building per hour."
He also said he wanted time for more input from citizens.
Jones, the election supervisor, previously said the building would be large enough, especially since in recent years more citizens vote early instead of at the election-day precinct.
Council discussion
District 4 Councilman John Riggs, who made the motion to table the decision, said he would "defer to the Board of Elections" in that request. District 1 Councilman Phil Boyum seconded the motion after saying he wanted to hear from Jones as leader of the election staff.
"I'd like something from the person who runs the thing, because I trust Shontay," Boyum said. "I've known her for a long time. She's a very reasonable person."
But Mack and District 2 Councilwoman Paulette Chavers said they wanted to vote on the resolution for the Luetta Moore Park site.
"I'm ready to vote now," Chavers said. "Even if we re-advertise, I'm still going to vote the same way."
City Attorney Cain Smith said the city would need to post a new notice in the newspaper and hold another public hearing since the decision was being tabled.
Riggs' motion to table to May 16, with an amendment from Boyum requesting a recommendation from Jones, passed 3-2, with Barr casting the third vote in favor. Chavers and Mack voted against it.
The county Board of Elections' next meeting is May 8.