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Home > Blogs > Springfield Schools News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > November > 03 > Entry
Should schools be polling places?
Several local schools will be the site for voters to cast their ballots in tomorrow’s election.
More and more lately, districts debate opening their doors to voters. I’ve heard of districts that asked to not be used as polling places any more or even planned a teacher in-service training or conference day so the students wouldn’t be there.
Think about it: In a post-Columbine, post-Virginia Tech era, schools put a higher priority than ever before on knowing who precisely is in their halls. To be a polling place, the schools have to open up at least one portion of the building to residents assigned to vote there.
On a normal school visit, I expect at the very least to go through the office, identify myself, sign in and get a visitor’s badge. And that would be average security measures. Many schools keep their doors locked and require visitors to “buzz in” to get into the building.
In Butler County, the board of elections and the sheriff held a press conference today about their request to Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to ask the Ohio Department of Education to ask the five country districts that planned to remain open tomorrow to close, my college Josh Sweigart reports.
Their concerns stem from predictions for high turnout this election, traffic congestion and safety of the children at schools that will be used as polling places.Closing school for Election Day this year would present a bit of a pickle for some schools - particularly this close to the actual day - after September’s power outage used up some allotted calamity days before the first snowflakes even came close to falling.
The board of elections is allowed to use public buildings as polling places if they need to. In more urban areas, like Springfield, they have more choices such as churches, service organizations or government buildings. In more suburban or rural areas the pickings are usually much slimmer.
According to district calendars, none of the Clark County districts are closed tomorrow. A few schools will serve as polling places, according to the Clark County Board of Elections.
The Ohio Department of Education released an email Oct. 27 with guidelines for Election Day for districts serving as polling locations. The guide cautioned officials to work with the board of elections to ease traffic concerns; review expectations with students before Election Day; and know the correct contacts at the board of elections in case a situation arises.
My elementary school was a polling place. I remember seeing adults vote when I was younger and being intrigued by the process. I also remember going with my mom once and doing children’s voting. There’s certainly an argument in there for students being exposed to the election process by watching adults going to vote.
Do you think schools should be used as polling places? Should they cancel classes on Election Day?
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: Elections, Ohio, Politics
Comments
By tiggermom
November 4, 2008 10:05 AM | Link to this
I, too, remember having voting in my elementary school - but that was a different era (1950s). I don’t think they should use the schools for voting places any more. In the city, there should be enough other places, like churches, that would open their doors to voters for this day. School parking lots are already full of teachers’ cars, the rooms including gym are probably needed for instruction. And then there’s the safety issue.