Members of the Williamson County Election Commission are scheduled to hold a meeting Thursday to discuss voting locations for next year’s presidential primary.
The primary is scheduled for March 3.
The meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday at the Williamson County Administrative Complex at 1320 W. Main Street, Suite 140 in Franklin.
County officials announced big changes last month in how voters in the county will cast ballots on Election Day, and this will begin early next year.
This, according to a statement on the county’s website.
“The Election Day Convenient Vote Center plan will include 25 voting locations throughout the county. By law voters had been required to cast ballots at assigned precincts based on their address,” according to information on the county’s website.
“Under the new Vote Center plan, a voter may cast a ballot at their convenience at any Election Day polling location regardless of where they actually reside.”
The five-member bi-partisan Williamson County Election Commission approved the Election Day Convenient Vote Center plan for transmission to the Tennessee Coordinator of Elections, Mark Goins, according to county officials.
This pilot project was unanimously approved for the county in the 2019 session of the Tennessee General Assembly. The Williamson County Commission provided the funding for the project in July. Nearby Rutherford County implemented such a program in 2018.
“We realize our voters have busy schedules with work, school age children and other obligations and we are excited about how this new pilot project will allow our voters the flexibility to cast their ballots at any polling location in the county on Election Day” the county’s website quoted Chad Gray, Williamson County Administrator of Elections, as saying.
The Convenience Vote Center proposed sites were chosen by the Election Commission with the assistance of analytical data that included not only demographic and election turnout statistics, but also geographic considerations and the availability of critical infrastructure.
The Election Day Convenient Vote Center sites proposed by the Election Commission are:
• Westwood Elementary
• Fairview Recreation Center
• Hillsboro Middle School
• Independence High School
• Bethesda Elementary School
• Page High School
• Oakview Elementary School
• Heritage Elementary School
• Longview Recreation Center
• Spring Station Middle School
• Trinity Elementary School
• Clovercroft Elementary School
• Cool Springs Conference Center
• Nolensville Recreation Center
• Sunset Elementary School
• The John P. Holt Brentwood Library
• Edmondson Elementary
• Brenthaven Church
• Grassland Middle School
• Hunters Bend Elementary
• Pearre Creek Elementary
• First Presbyterian Church
• Williamson County Senior Enrichment Center
• The Church of the City-Franklin
• The Gate Community Church
“The introduction of Election Day Convenient Vote Centers will build on our current early voting model by now allowing the same flexibility of casting ballots in the same manner at our Election Day polling sites” Gray said.
“On average 70 percent of the ballots cast in a November election are cast during the early voting period and Early Voting will remain unchanged and continue as normal for all of the elections in the upcoming 2020 election cycle with multiple locations and expanded hours.”
The elections next year include the March 3, 2020, Presidential Preference Primary/County Republican Primary; the August 6, 2020, Federal/State Primary and County General Election; and the November 3, 2020, Federal/State General (Presidential) Election & Municipal Elections in the City of Fairview, Town of Nolensville & the Town of Thompson’s Station.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
