County to consolidate polling locations

Lincoln County’s seven polling locations will soon be consolidated into three central hubs in the region’s major municipalities.

County commissioners approved the change in a unanimous March 9 vote. The move came at the behest of Election Administrator Paula Buff, who argued the proposal improves security and logistics.

“Taking a tour of the county, thinking about logistics and security and that kind of thing, in my mind it just makes sense,” she said. “It makes for a much more robust, secure election system.”

In north Lincoln County, officials are doing away with the Trego Fortine Stryker Fire Department location and centralizing voting at the High Road Youth Center in Eureka. In Troy, voters will be directed to the Troy Activity Center, doing away polling centers at the McCormick School, the defunct Kootenai Senior Citizens Center and Upper Yaak Fire Services building.

And in Libby, voters will no longer go to either the Ponderosa Room at City Hall or the VFW building, but the Memorial Events Center.

Lincoln County has seen its share of voters casting absentee ballots grow in recent years, Buff told commissioners, which factored into the consolidation proposal. The all-mail general election in 2020 likely encouraged that trend, Buff said.

“I think people realized being able to vote by mail is pretty convenient for a lot of people, especially those that live out in remote, rural areas,” she said.

Speaking to residents about the proposed changes, Buff said she heard several calls for better access to drop off locations. In response, her team is arranging for drop off kiosks in the lobby of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office in Libby as well as the lobbies of the Troy and Eureka dispatch centers. The Libby kiosk already has gone in and workers installed the Troy kiosk earlier this week.

The kiosks are under constant video surveillance and officials will make sure a combination of election judges and local law enforcement collect and retrieve ballots from the drop off locations, Buff said.

“They’re great kiosks, easily identifiable and very safe and very secure,” she said.

Overall, the new system, with its combination of drop off locations and centralized hubs, should prove more efficient, she told commissioners. And those voters wary of sending absentee ballots via the U.S. Postal Service can always avail themselves of the kiosks, she said.

Buff also pointed to safety concerns with the previous system. In a few of the smaller polling locations, social distancing recommendations are difficult to meet.

“We haven’t had a polling place election for a couple of years,” she said. “Some of these facilities, they’re just not able to accommodate social distancing coupled with [Americans with Disabilities Act] requirements with election judges and staff being there.”

County Commissioner Brent Teske (D-1), who made the motion to approve the changes, noted the public interest in election security.

“Voter integrity and ballot security are a big issue now,” he said.

With the changes approved, election officials plan to send a letter to Lincoln County’s roughly 13,000 registered voters apprising them of the change. The mailing will include new voter registration cards emblazoned with updated polling locations, Buff said.