Road bond opponents claim Montgomery County ‘disenfranchised’ voters

From Conroe Courier By Jay R. Jordan | Posted: Saturday, May 9, 2015 6:33 pm

Road bond opponents claim Montgomery County ‘disenfranchised’ voters

Voters line up on Montgomery County Election Day at Galatas Elementary School.

THE WOODLANDS – Opponents of the $350 million Montgomery County road bond said the polling location consolidation for Saturday’s election “disenfranchised” voters.

The Woodlands Township Director Gordy Bunch said Montgomery County election officials disrupted the voting process by reducing the number of polling locations from 89 to 32 throughout the county.

Bunch claims 80 percent of would-be voters were diverted from the South County Community Center and told to go to other polling locations, including Galatas Elementary in The Woodlands where more than 600 voters had turned out after five hours of voting Saturday. Bunch said voters at this location were forced to wait 45 minutes to an hour in some cases.

“(Galatas Elementary) is at ground zero of The Woodlands Parkway extension and wasn’t provided with nearly enough resources that they should have anticipated, given that this was the hottest contested area,” Bunch said. “The consolidation of the precincts and the distribution of that information to the public has been horrendous.”

Montgomery County Election Central contested the consolidation was to reduce cost, not to suppress voters, and that this practice is standard for non-primary or general elections.

“No one is turned away at the polls,” Election Administrator Suzie Harvey said, adding that no one is being “disenfranchised.”

“They might be told they’re at the wrong precinct, because a voter has to vote at their precinct on Election Day. If they vote at the wrong precinct, it won’t be counted.”

Bunch said he asked for additional equipment and staff be brought to the Galatas Elementary location, but Harvey said that would not solve the issue of a long wait.

“It’s possible, but that’s not the cause for the wait,” Harvey said. “More voting booths wouldn’t solve the problem. The slowdown occurs at check-in, and it’s not really a slowdown, per say. The average wait time per voter… is 17 minutes. Some voters waited 25 minutes. That’s not a disenfranchisement.”

Polls close at 7 p.m. tonight.