Bangor council to weigh voting consolidation Residents would vote at Civic Center

BANGOR – City councilors will decide next week if Bangor’s nine polling places should be consolidated at the Bangor Civic Center.

A public hearing and final vote on the consolidation plan will take place during the council’s next regular meeting, set for 7:30 p.m. Monday in the council chambers at City Hall.

The idea is to consolidate all aspects of elections – from voter registration and voting to absentee ballot processing and counting – in a single location, that being the Bangor Civic Center.

If the nine-member council decides to go ahead with the merger, it also will designate the Civic Center as the voting place for all of the city’s registered voters, City Clerk Patti Dubois said Wednesday, after a meeting of the council’s finance committee.

“I think everybody agrees voting could be improved – this is about making things better for voters,” said Dubois, who developed the consolidation proposal after surviving last November’s elections, which featured federal and state elections and a couple of hot local issues.

Since the plan was unveiled in mid-January, however, city officials have received little public reaction.

City councilors and local representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties have weighed in on the issue, and have been supportive.

“There’s been very little feedback from the public and that makes me nervous,” Dubois said Wednesday.

With regard to comments she’s received so far, Dubois said the “positives outweigh the negatives.”

“I’m hoping to hear what concerns people have so we can work to address them,” Dubois said.

If the council approves the consolidation, it could be implemented as early as June, if there is an election in June, or November.

As it stands, Bangor has four voting wards, each divided into two precincts, as well as a central polling site at City Hall.

Setting up and breaking down booths and tables and handling other Election Day needs at nine different locations has proved to be a logistical nightmare, Dubois noted earlier.

Bangor resident William Sullivan is among the few who have taken the time to weigh in on the matter. In an e-mail to councilors, he wrote:

“It seems to me an excellent idea to increase our city services to voters on Election Day by letting them vote at a single, well-known, easily accessible site and letting new voters register and vote without requiring several trips. …

“… There are, of course, many details that have to be worked out and it may take a few elections for everything to settle down, but the plan proposed by Ms. Dubois seems to me to hold the promise of more efficiency, better ‘customer service’ and better ballot security than the present fragmented system can ever hope to achieve,” Sullivan wrote.

If voting took place at the Civic Center, as many as 150 voting booths could be set up, according to Dubois’ plan. At least six ballot counting machines also could be put to use.

Voters would line up by alphabetical order, instead of by wards, and be given the appropriate ballot by their legislative district.

Wardens would be assigned to certain tasks, instead of wards. A room would be set aside for absentee ballots. Petition tables also would be available for citizen-initiated petitions.