Brandon Twp.- Township voters may be casting their ballots at a new location the next election.
During the November 2008 election, thousands of voters descended on Fire Station #2 to cast their ballots. The building at 3065 Sashabaw Road, serving precincts 3 and 4, was crammed with people and more lined up into the parking lot.
Vehicles filled the lot and spilled over into Seymour Lake Cemetery and across the street at Seymour Lake United Methodist Church.
‘There wasn’t sufficient parking, it was dangerous for people crossing the street from the church to the fire station,? says Clerk Jeannie McCreery. ‘We were too crowded. By law, we cannot combine precincts that total more than 5,000 voters and we’ve gotten that many.?
Taking those factors into account, the township board approved at their Dec. 21 meeting a motion to add a polling location at Oakwood Elementary, 2839 Oakwood Road, relocating precinct 3, and to rearrange the boundaries of voting precincts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Precinct 4 will remain at Fire Station #2, but due to the redrawing of the boundaries, residents previously assigned to that precinct could see their voting location change. The same could be true of voters who previously cast their ballots at precincts 1 and 2, located at Brandon Fletcher Intermediate School, 300 South Street. It is also possible that voters previously assigned to precinct 3 at the fire station may still vote at the fire station if they fall within the new boundaries for precinct 4. Voters currently assigned to precinct 5, at Sashabaw Meadows Mobile Home Community, 4359 Dogwood, and at precinct 6, at the Old Town Hall, 486 Mill St., will not see a change in their polling location. ‘I decided the boundaries by looking at the number of voters in each precinct and looking at the potential for growth in those areas,? explained McCreery. ‘I think it will be confusing to the voters, but before the August election, we will send out notifications to all residents currently in precincts 1, 2, 3, and 4.?