Only 55 people cast ballots during the first week of early voting for residents of Forsyth County towns, but one mayor worries that folks will get lost on Election Day because some polling places have been merged for this election.
All the incorporated places in Forsyth except Winston-Salem are holding municipal elections this fall. Towns are selecting mayors and board members in contests that typically draw few people to the polls.
Although there's still a week to go, no early votes had been cast in the Bethania and Walkertown elections, and only three each in Tobaccoville and Rural Hall.
By the end of last week, Kernersville had only 11 early voters and Lewisville had 12, according to the Forsyth County Board of Elections. For Clemmons offices, 26 voters had cast ballots, which is only 0.2 percent of the village's registered voters.
In 2007, voter turnout finished at 17 percent for the seven places holding elections this year.
When Election Day arrives Tuesday, Nov. 8, Kernersville Mayor Dawn Morgan is worried that some people are going to be confused by the consolidation of precincts that will be in effect in five of the villages, towns or cities.
Because municipal boundaries don't always follow precinct lines, some towns can end up with polling places that have only a small number of registered voters.
For instance, Precinct 81, which votes at Oak Summit United Methodist Church, has 356 registered voters including 23 who live in Walkertown. The rest are in unincorporated areas of the county. In 2007, only four people from the precinct voted in the town election.
As a result, elections officials decided over the summer to merge smaller polling places with larger ones nearby. The voters in those merged precincts are not being permanently reassigned to new precincts, but they did receive a mailing that told them their polling place had been moved for the 2011 election.
Election officials will also put up signs at precincts that won't open, so that the voters who ordinarily go there can learn where to go and vote.
"To open up a precinct costs about $3,000," said Rob Coffman, the director of elections in Forsyth. "We looked at it as a case of fiscal responsibility."
The incorporated places have to pay the elections office to run their elections.
Morgan said she's not upset that some polling places are being merged, but she wishes that when people look up their polling places on the state Board of Elections website, the temporary voting place would be shown rather than the permanent one that may be closed on Election Day.
Coffman said the system simply isn't set up to give that kind of information but said the fact that Morgan is voicing her concerns will help get the word out in addition to the other steps taken.
Morgan, unopposed in her re-election bid for mayor, said she worries that once people vote in a new place, they will get lost again when the 2012 general election moves them back to their old polling place.
"I'm concerned that it will cause substantial confusion," Morgan said.
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