Election officials voted this week to reduce the number of polling places in rural Lincoln County from seven to three, despite opposition from voting rights advocates.
The consolidation of voting locations ahead of next year’s presidential election follows an outcry last year that temporarily persuaded county officials to keep every precinct open during the 2022 midterms.
The election board in Lincoln County, located north of Augusta, voted 3-0 on Wednesday to approve the precinct closures.
Election Board Chairman Glenn Creech said the decision would end the use of locations that lacked adequate parking spaces, air conditioning and accessibility for voters with disabilities.
But critics of the move said voters will be discouraged by longer drives and confusion about where they can cast a ballot.
“It makes me feel like we’re going back to grandma and great-grandma’s days, when voting was made more difficult,” said the Rev. Denise Freeman, a local minister. “To think we have to overcome that, to be going backward in the 21st century, is just mind-boggling.”
Creech said poll workers and voters needed adequate facilities, and the small county of fewer than 8,000 residents couldn’t afford to upgrade its old precincts.
“We had to do something,” Creech said. “The voters of Lincoln County will have better voting precincts that are more accommodating and handicapped-accessible.”
Creech said voting will remain convenient in Lincoln County, where 68% of voters supported Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The farthest increase in distance for voters is 3.2 miles to a new voting location, he said.
The vote to reduce precincts was made by an election board whose majority was appointed by the Republican-controlled Lincoln County Commission. A state law passed two years ago by the Republican-held Georgia General Assembly replaced the county’s previous election board.
The voting location changes will affect Election Day voters, and the county will retain one early voting location open for 17 days. About 58% of Lincoln County voters cast early or absentee ballots in last year’s general election, with the remaining 42% showing up on Election Day, according to state voting data.
Across Georgia, county election boards closed 214 precincts between 2012 and 2018, nearly 8% of the state’s polling places, according to a count by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
