CALAIS – Neighbors will be able to visit with neighbors they haven’t seen in years now that the city has combined its voting wards.

In a move that will save the city staff time and money, city councilors voted last week to merge three polling places into one, starting Nov. 5 at the city’s elementary school on Garfield Street.

In the past, voters went to polls at the City Building downtown and at the fire stations in Red Beach and Milltown.

Changing voting districts is not a new concept to this community.

Incorporated in 1851, the city was at first divided into five wards, later expanded to seven.

In recent years, the city has winnowed the seven wards down to three.

City Clerk Theresa Porter told the City Council last week that a single polling place would save the city around $1,700 each election. One recent year, she said, Calais voters were asked to vote in five elections.

Another problem has been staffing, the clerk said.

Porter said she had found it difficult to find polling clerks for each of the sites. Creating a single polling place would ease that problem.

Porter said that having people vote at one site would help voters who had not registered. For example, she said, someone who lives in Milltown and had not registered before an election has had to go to the City Building on Church Street to register. Then that person had to go back to the Milltown Fire Station to vote.

She also said it would help alleviate her travel time between polls. “The clerk-registrar would not have to spend the day traveling between voting districts and would be available at the one voting district all day,” she said.

She also said that election results would be available earlier.

Porter said she would notify voters of the change.