LEWISBURG, W.Va. — Elected officials will be taking questions Tuesday evening from Greenbrier County voters concerned about polling location changes.
The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia (ACLU-WV) is hosting and moderating a “town-hall” discussion in Lewisburg at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The discussion will be held at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine’s Clingman Center, located just off US-219.
West Virginia Secretary of State Chief of Staff Donald “Deak” Kersey and Greenbrier County Clerk Robin Loudermilk are scheduled to be on hand.
ACLU-WV Executive Director Eli Baumwell said that several Greenbrier County residents called the organization to inquire about why some polling locations are shifting for this year’s election.
Baumwell cited multiple upsides of holding this discussion.
“The first is to get people more engaged in civic life, make sure they know what their rights are,” Baumwell said. “That they understand a little bit about how polling places are created, how precincts are created.”
“[Also] to answer some of the questions that we’ve gotten, that we’ve been trying to get answered ourselves,” Baumwell continued. “About how and when these changes were made, and do it in a way that is constructive and builds dialogue rather than just pointing fingers.”
Baumwell noted that this discussion could be a great way to soothe some of those concerns.
“When people first started to realize this, we had a high volume of calls and complaints from people who had all realized that their polling places had been changed,” Baumwell said. “Frankly, a lot of them were concerned that this was some sort of voter-suppression tactic. I don’t have any indication or evidence that is the case but thought that this would be a good opportunity to foster dialogue rather than letting suspicion fester.”
Many questions will be asked, Baumwell said. He added that he aims to moderate a discussion with questions from the crowd directed for Kersey and Loudermilk to answer.
“I think it’s going to be questions like, ‘Who made these decisions? When were they made? What were the factors that went into them?'” Baumwell said. “I think the biggest and most important question is, ‘How can the public stay up to date?’ and ‘How can they get involved and have their opinions on these types of changes be considered going forward?'”
Baumwell said he hopes people leave the discussion armed with knowledge and trust.
“Everyone comes out a little bit more aware of voting rights, they come out more aware of how these things are made, we’ve built a little bit more trust rather than sort of descending into more accusations, at a time where people are concerned with voter-suppression tactics, and people come out more aware of how they can get involved and have a voice in these changes for the future.”