Wolftown and Graves Mill voters may cast ballots at a new location this year.
Next week, Madison County Supervisors will hear public comments regarding possible polling location changes. The changes would affect both the Wolftown and Graves Mill precincts.
In February, the electoral board said the current Wolftown polling location, Rapidan Baptist Church, was no longer viable. Electoral board member Jim Smith said the church has a conflict and being a polling place had caused a bit of an inconvenience for them. He said an ordinance declaring a new polling location has to be in place 30 days prior to the upcoming June 17 primary election.
Registrar Lauren Eanes said she had reached out to some venues in the Wolftown area and visited both Rose Park United Methodist Church and the Wolftown Ruritan Club. She suggested selecting the church as the new Wolftown polling location. She said the building is fairly new and in great shape, plus it’s ADA compliant and meets other requirements as well as being close to the former polling location.
“It wouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience,” Eanes said.
Eanes said ideally any changes would be in place and mailed out to affected voters before May 2 when early voting begins. Something else to consider, she said, is that with 50% of voters opting to vote early in her office, nine precincts are probably not needed. She said an option would be to consolidate the Graves Mill and Wolftown precincts at the new location.
“If starting with a blank slate today, we probably would come to the conclusion we would have four [precincts] and they would meet in each of the schools,” Smith added. “For convenience, four is a good number.”
Smith said code requires 200 registered voters before a precinct could be created, but noted Graves Mill has less than 100. However, he said, the electoral board was not suggesting the change, but rather starting the conversation. He said Graves Mill wouldn’t be abandoned, but rather the new location could be called the Graves Mill precinct.
When the first voting happened in Virginia, Smith said Graves Mill was a precinct.
“That election here in Madison probably determined that we’d be a Republic,” he said.
Moving from nine to eight precincts would be a cost saving measure. The county’s voting machines are approaching their end of life and will eventually need to be replaced.
Graves Mill resident Mitch Bernstein questioned the idea to consolidate the precincts, something he said was discussed and decided against three years earlier. He suggested waiting to make any decision regarding Graves Mill until the fiscal impact was imminent.
“Why walk away from the historical significance way before there’s any fiscal impact,” Bernstein asked. He asked that the county maintain “the status quo” and remove consolidation from the discussion.
A public hearing on the relocation of the Wolftown polling place and consolidation of the Graves Mill precinct will be held Tuesday, April 8 at 4 p.m. at 414 N. Main Street, Madison.
