County Closing Four Precincts

The polls will be farther away for some voters next year.  Pocahontas County proposes to have only seven polling precincts (Three of them in Poky)  instead of the current eleven.  The remaining voting places will be in Laurens, Fonda, Palmer, Rolfe and Pocahontas.  This means no voting in Varina, Havelock, Plover or Gilmore City.  This news was first reported in the Record-Democrat.

Havelock and Plover voters must go to Rolfe.  That's a drive of nearly 20 miles from the northwest corner of the precinct and ten miles for the folks in Havelock or Plover.  Varina voters go to Fonda, except those in southern Marshall township, which will go to Pocahontas to vote with south Sherman and Grant townships at the fire station.  Gilmore City goes to Pocahontas.  The Palmer precinct adds the voters of southern Lake township (southwest of Gilmore City), but is otherwise quite similar to its previous self.

Auditor Margene  Bunda told the county commissioners that shrinking population and the difficulty of getting poll workers caused the consolidation.  

Iowa's generous absentee voting laws will lessen the hardship for those far from the polls.  About a third of Iowans already vote absentee.  Now there will be more in Pocahontas County.  But there will also be more people who miss out on voting altogether.

The rise in absentee voting may also have contributed to the poll closings.  As both population and in-person turnout decline, it makes for pretty quiet polling places that still require at least three workers.  Asking people to drive 15 miles will not increase turnout or make more workers volunteer for poll duty.  

Presidential caucuses will not be affected this year, but by 2016 this will greatly curtail turnout from people in the closed precincts.